


"Quotation Marks"

by Vanlesbian



Series: "Quotation Marks" Series [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1960s, Angst, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Smut, Homophobic Language, M/M, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Not Really Character Death, References to the Beatles, Slow Burn, Smut, Time Travel, harry's actually in this too you'll see, made-up future jargon, they're american in this i'm sorry, underground gay clubs because why not its the 60s
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:48:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 22
Words: 64,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29231043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vanlesbian/pseuds/Vanlesbian
Summary: Louis trained for two years for this moment to finally follow in his family's footsteps to time travel for TARC. His first mission- Chicago in 1964 to take footage of the time to be used for Memory Chips being developed by the lab to sell to the public for entertainment. Louis' mission is only supposed to last five days, five minutes back in 2064. However, when he accidentally meets Alex, a discharged Vietnam soldier trying to run from his demons, his mission no longer seems to matter compared to the boy with dimples.OrLouis time travels from 2064 to 1964 Chicago, where he meets Alex at a gay underground speakeasy and all original plans get thrown to the wind until he's forced to come back to his own time.
Relationships: Alex (Dunkirk)/Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Series: "Quotation Marks" Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2163177
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, Hi, Hello welcome. So this story was originally written for NaNoWriMo and is the first book of a trilogy. It was originally made with original lesbian characters in Chicago in the 60s so I'm changing things as I post to fit the new narrative. The story is complete though at 22 chapters and roughly 65k. It will take me about a week though to get the full thing uploaded though so I can update and edit as I go. Any trigger warnings I will post before the chapter. Also, Liam is Louis' brother and is 5 years older than him in this, please just go with it. Of course, this is a work of fiction only meant for entertainment purposes only. If you like it please comment and like!
> 
> If you read the first chapter when I posted it I'M SORRY! I have decided to stick with the US 60s theme instead of London in the 40s because this is how my book was originally written and I realized changing it that much would be a lot more time consuming than I can handle right now. If people are interested I could maybe do it in the future.

Louis looked at his reflection in the mirror in the locker room. He gave a disgusted look at the tan khakis and red checkered button-down shirt he wore. The combination had never been in style in his lifetime. He reached into his locker and took out the most important piece to his outfit. A pair of light brown top wing framed glasses, the bottom frameless, and slid them on. He looked in the mirror again and ran his hands through his chestnut brown swooped hair that was part to the right of his face.

He shut the locker door that held his normal clothes and all his precious electronics and made his way out of the locker room and down the hall to the main laboratory. People buzzed around him, as he quietly made his way inside, and over to the time machine parked on the other side of the room.

He never knew what his parent’s occupation was until he turned sixteen. His parents would always say they worked for the United States government and that’s all they could say. Louis had met a few other kids in school over the years whose parents had told them the same thing. They used to make up stories together about how their parents were super-secret spies taking down bad guys and doing cool acrobatic moves. Then his sixteenth birthday came, and he was faced with a life-altering decision.

His parents, who had divorced when he was five, sat with him at the kitchen table with somber looks on their faces. There was no awkward tension between the two, just nervous energy that ran through the room and constricted Louis’s breath. The only other time he had seen them like this was when they had announced they were getting divorced. Louis knew what was about to be said was going to be big.

His dad spoke first adjusting the glasses that were slipping down his nose. “I know in the past we’ve been vague when it comes to our careers, but you’re old enough to know now the extent of what we do.” He drew a deep breath and glanced over at his mom before continuing. “Your mom and I started working for the government when we were right out of college. Your mom on the scientist side, and I on the engineering side. We were hired on to the top-secret project of the NTTA, or the National Time Travel Association. Just like in the 1960s there was the space race, in the 2040s there was the time race. The United States competed amongst China, India, Russia, and Japan to see who could successfully go back in time first. As you may know, India was the winner of the race by a month, sending someone back a day in time and then back to the present. Your mother and I were assigned to this project and worked on it for many years perfecting it.” He paused and Louis’ mom took over the conversation.

“Time travel is a reality which is common knowledge now to the public. What they don’t know about is the Timeless Artifacts Retrieval Commission, TARC for short. A program your father and I helped design to go back in time and retrieve rare videos of significant events in history. These videos help historians and scientists to understand history better, so in the future, our nation can continue to grow and flourish.”

Louis chewed at his bottom lip, a nervous habit he was never able to quit. He looked between both of his parents desperately hanging onto their words that still lay in the air like smoke. He didn’t know where this was going and why they were telling him this now, but he was curious and gave them his undivided attention. 

His mom studied his face for a moment before continuing. “Some of the videos we want to retrieve requires younger participants, preferably in their teens, so they blend in with the demographic better. We gave the choice to your brother when he turned sixteen, and now we’re extending it to you. Would you like to begin training to time travel?”

Louis’ felt like his jaw hit the ground when in reality, he couldn’t move a muscle. He stared at his parents from across the table with wide eyes and an expression mixed with excitement and fear.

“You want me to time travel? Isn’t that reserved for highly trained specialists and not clumsy teenagers?” So maybe Louis’ could be a bit of a smartass sometimes, but he did it more for the comedy aspect than being an actual jerk.

His dad slightly chuckled while her mom drew a sigh and shifted her elbows on the table, so he sat up taller and looked more professional.

“We’re telling you now Louis’ because it will take two years of training before you are actually allowed to time travel. You technically won’t be allowed until you are officially eighteen and have completed all the proper training and tests. We extended the offer to you and Liam because some of the videos that need to be retrieved would be best taken by teenagers or young adults. When your brother accepted our invitation five years ago, he began training every day after school at our work building.” Her dad said folding his hands together and looking at him with excitement like he was watching his son graduate high school instead of giving him the option to sign up for time-traveling school.

“What exactly does this training entail? Also, I always thought Liam was in various clubs after school or hanging out with friends.” He asked as he put his finger up to where he had been biting his lip. When he pulled it away a smear of red was on his finger from where he bit his lip too hard. The pain didn’t even register with him, as he looked back at his parents waiting for them to answer. He felt slightly betrayed, that his brother had been in on this secret for five years. Suddenly he no longer felt as close to him as he once did.

His mother spoke up, still sitting straight up in her professional position. “Your brother was sworn not to tell anyone on the outside about his training. It’s top-secret which is why your father and I could not tell you about our jobs beforehand. Your training would consist of coming to the laboratory every day after school, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and on Saturday once a month for training starting this coming week until your eighteenth birthday. Training would be three hours on weekdays and five on Saturdays. Tests would range from Physical, emotional, mental, and consists of physical, written, and medical tests. This is your choice though Louis, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Since Louis was little, he was always one for adventure and taking the lead. Once when he was eight he and his best friend Niall went exploring in the woods. Something Louis talked him into in the first place. After an hour of dodging low hanging branches and overgrown tree roots, Niall declared they were officially lost, and it was only a matter of time before they were eaten by wolves. Louis was not having any of this. He took Niall by the arm and led him where he thought the south was. That was the way towards his neighborhood. After dodging more tree branches and getting mud all over their shoes and jeans, Louis eventually led them back to the entrance of the woods. Niall fell onto the sidewalk and claimed to be hugging it while Louis rolled his eyes and called him a drama queen.

Louis took a minute to think this decision through. His schedule would become a lot busier if he said yes. He would no longer be able to do any school sports, not that he did any, or hang out with friends as much. Did any of that really compare to time travel though? Louis knew what he was giving up, but he also knew what he was gaining, an opportunity rarely given to anyone no matter what the age.

“I want to do it.” He said as he folded his hands in front of himself on the table.

Louis began training the following Monday and had been training ever since last week when he took the final tests and blew out eighteen candles on his birthday cake. His brother, being five years older, had since been promoted to time monitoring. He watched over the timeline to make sure things didn’t change when people time traveled. So far nothing catastrophic had happened and had to be fixed.

******

“Louis it’s time to start going through the checklist.” His father said to him right as he approached the time machine.

There were thirteen-time machines in the United States all located at NTTA’s headquarters in Chicago. Most of them looked like fancy sports cars only the wealthiest could afford. The one Louis was assigned was a small black two-door time machine that looked like a Jaguar. When the machine went back in time it disguised itself as a car from that year or before. This made it impossible for anyone to travel before cars existed, without the time machine being exposed. Louis had been in simulators that look just like time machines, but this would be his first time stepping into a real one.

Louis tried to do anything other than think of the bundle of excitement and nerves that bounced around his body like a pinball machine. A machine Louis had only seen in old movies her parents made her watch.

His dad and two other scientists walked around the time machine inspecting various things and checking boxes off on their lists. His mom and brother were over with various other people sitting behind computer monitors and giant TV screens analyzing data. Administrator Bray, who oversaw NTTA, stepped out of his corner office and began walking around barking orders and demanding status updates from the people around the computers.

When his father and the other two scientists finished, they all gathered around Louis and his father began reading off from his clipboard.

“Dressed appropriately for London, September of 1964?” He adjusted his glasses looking at Louis then back at his clipboard where he made a checkmark. “Do you have a bag with the rest of the clothes you’ll need for your trip?” On cue, another scientist brought over a suitcase 1964 worthy and said all the approved clothing and toiletries were packed. His father nodded and continued. “Electronics locked away?” Louis patted down his pockets and looked at his wrist, just to make sure before nodding.

His dad finished marking everything on his clipboard before he folded his clipboard in one of his arms. “Okay kiddo, time for the briefing. It is currently July 26th of 2064 in Chicago, Illinois, you are to travel back to September 5th of 1964 Chicago, Illinois. Once there you are to go to the Beatles concert at the International Amphitheater and record the concert footage inconspicuously on your glasses. Then since you requested, instead of coming back to the present and then getting sent back to the past a few days later, you will stay in 1964 four days until September 9th. On September 9th, you will attend and record the Cubs v. .45 Colts game at Wrigley, and then after the game you are to immediately return back to 2064.” He paused cracking his knuckles and looking back over his clipboard before adjusting his glasses. Louis bit at his lip and adjusted his own glasses as the computer on the wall spoke “five minutes.”

His dad quickly picked up where he left off. “In your suitcase, you’ll find all the information about The Morrison hotel you’ll be staying at, along with a paper map of the city, the ticket to the game, your new license and $500 in all made in the year 1964 or before. Now listen because this is the most important part. During the days before the football game it is okay to leave the hotel and site see, but do not talk to anybody or do anything that could cause the timeline to get messed up. Remember your training, and you should be fine.”

Louis nodded and took a deep breath. He picked up the suitcase by the handle and brought it over to the passenger’s side of the time machine. He opened the door and placed it on the seat before closing it and returning to the driver’s side.

His mom and brother made their way over to the time machine. His mom and dad both hugged him, and his brother insisted on just a pat on the back before going back to his computer.

“Okay, I think I’m ready,” Louis said, opening the driver’s side door.

“Two Minutes.” The computer announced and everyone took their place. Louis took a seat in the time machine leaving the door open.

“Louis, we are so proud of you, and remember we love you.” His mom said trying not to cry and excusing herself to go back to her computer.

“Okay, Louis go ahead and start up the time machine.” His dad said standing right by the door. Louis did as he was told, and he felt the time machine quietly hum to life. “Now as I’m sure you know when given the signal to, you will drive forward. Once you hit ten miles per hour you should start traveling back in time. Remember to keep up a speed of at least sixty but no more than eighty, until you reach your destination.” His dad reached into the car and patted his shoulder. “You’ve got this kid, Oh, and don’t forget to keep up the proper slang when you talk.” His father closed the door of the time machine and stepped back 30 feet from the side of the vehicle where the rest of the scientists stood.

“System Ready.” The computer spoke. 

Louis ignored the pounding of his heart in his ears as he put his foot on the brake and shifted into drive, then he eased off the brakes and slowly began to accelerate. A second later he was no longer in the laboratory, but on the road back to 1964.


	2. Chapter 2

Louis began to feel more at ease as he focused on keeping a speed of 65 to 70 miles an hour. So far everything had been exactly like how he had been taught in simulation training. He checked over all the pressures and read that two monitors displayed in the middle console. Then he switched the car to auto-drive and took his foot off the gas. He reclined his seat back a little and took a deep breath, staring at the roof of the interior.

After Louis accepted the offer to start training, his parents brought him to the lab the next Monday. Liam was already twenty-one and had been on several missions before, while Louis had been the newest recruit and only kid in the building. It had been strange seeing his family so often, when before he would come home to an empty house till his brother or one of his parents would get home. His brother and he bounced back and forth between living with their mother and stepfather in the suburbs or living with their dad in his city apartment.

He had two years of training, and yet every day he never knew what to expect. One day he would arrive and be put in a small room with fluorescent lights and no windows and asked to read various documents on the mechanics of time travel. Then an hour later a scientist or engineer would come in and attempt to explain what he just read. His mother would always tell him when he asked that “In order to do something you must first learn how it operates.”

Other days he would come to the lab and be taken into a room like one you would have at a hospital. He would have his blood drawn then taken down the hall to a gym, where he was hooked up to monitors as he exercised on various equipment. The doctor in the lab would watch him and analyze monitors of his vitals. Days like these usually happened twice a week, sometimes back to back, while other times at the beginning and end of the week. Louis wouldn’t say he was necessarily overweight, to begin with but wouldn’t argue with needing to get more in shape. He noticed after a few weeks of these training days his stomach shrinking and her clothing began to fit looser.

However, the days Louis hated the most were the mental and emotional test days. Most weeks consisted of physical tests and learning about the mechanics of time travel. Some days though, he would come into the lab and be taken to certain places he had never been before. On days like these, he was assigned to a psychologist, the doctor from the physical days, and a nurse.

Once he was taken into a room that looked exactly like the bedroom he had at his mum’s house. Every detail was replicated down to what was on his bookshelf and on his dresser. He assumed his mum must have taken pictures of his room while he was gone and gave them to her fellow co-workers. After he was led into the room the door was closed behind him and he was the only one in the room. He already assumed the answer, but he went ahead and tried the handle to open the door. Locked. Was the test him trying to find a way out, or was something else about to happen?

He walked around the replica of his room and began surveying the identical items. He walked over to the desk and dresser and opened all the chores. They were all empty. Then he went over to where his window would be and opened the curtains to find more walls behind them. Just as he was about to start pacing around the room, another nervous habit he had, he began to smell the scent of something burning. He crossed the room, to the door, and felt it with his hand. The door was smoldering hot, and he quickly withdrew his hand bringing it to his chest. He looked to his feet to see black smoke beginning to seep in through the crack at the bottom of the door.

He backed away from the door and quickly went through in his mind what he had been taught as a little kid to do if there was ever a fire. The smoke continued to seep through the crack and the room was beginning to look hazy as the stench of burning flooded his nostrils. His eyes began to water as he moved to the farthest wall of the room where the non-existent window was. He needed to stop the smoke from coming in first or soon it would be hard for him to breathe. He began coughing as he quickly scanned the room. There were the curtains hanging up on the wall or the comforter on the made-up bed in the center of the room. Louis quickly ran to the bed and ripped off the comforter in one swipe and dropped to his knees on the floor, rolling it up. He crawled over to the door and began shoving and wedging the comforter in the crack to block more smoke from coming in.

By now he was blinking tears out of his eyes and down his face as he continued to cough into his arm. With the door blocked as best he could, he laid down on his stomach on the floor and placed his head down onto his folder arms to shield himself from the smoke. His heart was racing, and his breathing was ragged as he tried not to move.

_This is just a test, right? They wouldn’t actually put me in any danger, would they? Do my parents know about this? Did Liam go through something similar?_

He had laid on the ground for around a minute when her thoughts were interrupted by the familiar voices, no not voices screams, of his family.

“Help! Help us!” His mother’s voice screamed with panic. He heard his brother scream in agony as his dad began to yell.

“Louis? Louis, where are you?”

Louis was up in a second and back at the door banging on it rapidly. He jiggled the handle of the door again, this time more urgently, but it was still locked, and now burning hot.

“I’m here, I’m here!” He screamed as he continued to bang on the door. The door was even hotter now, but he ignored the burning feeling in his hands, in favor of banging some more.

“Mom? Dad? Liam? Can anybody hear me? I’m in here!” He yelled and then began coughing in a fit with his throat dry and raw from the smoke. Louis fell against the adjacent wall and curled in on herself, to shield her face again from the smoke.

Two minutes later the door to the fake bedroom was open and fresh air rushed into the room. Louis peered up from his position on the floor and wiped at his tear-streaked cheeks. The psychologist, doctor, and nurse all stepped in the room and crowded around him. The nurse helped him to his feet and Louis took a deep breath of fresh air through his lungs. He peered out the door to find the halls in the lab to be unharmed and no fire insight. On shaky legs, he moved past the nurse and into the hallway and looked frantically from left to right.

“Where’s my family?” He asked, his voice hoarse.

The psychologist stepped out of the room first approaching Louis as if he were a wild animal. “It was just a test Louis; your family is fine. I need you to take some deep breaths for me.”

Once Louis calmed down the nurse and doctor escorted him to the exam room to get his vitals taken. That was the first-time Louis really questioned if this was for him. He was stubborn though, if Liam could make it through it then he could too.

There were a few more days throughout his training where he thought about walking out of the lab and never returning. On those days, Liam would come into his room when he got home from the lab and tell him about a mission he went on or what his next mission was. When he was eighteen, he started college to study physics and worked at the laboratory part-time.

One of the other hard parts about the training was not being able to tell anyone outside of the lab about it. He couldn’t tell his friends where he had to be every day after school or where he really was on certain Saturdays. It hurt not being able to tell his best friend Niall, who knew he was lying to him but accepted that he couldn’t tell him. He and Liam got closer over his training period because he’s the one he confined in. Liam had gone through the same thing when he was his age, so he knew exactly what he was going through.

Louis sat back up in his seat in the time machine and shifted in his seat to get comfortable. It took a minute a year to travel back in time. This meant her travel would be a hundred minutes or a little over an hour and a half. Normally when she needed to kill time she would be on her phone or computer, but now she didn’t have that luxury. To act the part, he was about to play; he needed to live the part. He reached over to the media screen on the top of the console above the other two monitors.

He hit music and spoke, “Play the Beatles.” The car filled with the sound of guitars as the song _Run for Your Life_ began to play through the speakers. He knew this song didn’t come out till 1965 but continued to let it play.

He knew he would be going on this mission six months prior when Administrator Bray himself assigned him the mission. That day when he arrived at the lab, he was escorted into a classroom type room, where he assumed, he would be taught more on the mechanics of time travel. Instead of one of his normal teachers coming in that day, Administrator Bray walked in carrying a tablet. He took a seat at the desk in front of Louis and began scrolling on his tablet till he found what he was looking for.

“Louis, seeing as you turn eighteen in six months, it’s time you get assigned and start preparing for your first mission.” He got up from the desk and walked over to the desk Louis was sitting at and placed the tablet in front of him. Then he projected the content on the tablet onto the board in front of him. He walked over to the board and began pointing key information out. 

Louis had never personally talked to Administrator Bray before. Usually, his assistants and higher-ups that worked under him handled his affairs, while he stayed in his office or walked around seeing what progress was being made. Administrator Bray was an older man in his upper sixties who always wore a nicely pressed suit to work every day. He had gray hair that was neatly combed and gelled back, and usually never smiled.

He pointed to the projected screen and went over what he was to capture at the Beatles concert in Chicago in 1964. After that day, time in the classroom was spent listening to and learning about the Beatles. He had to listen to all their albums and watched all their films. He watched all the live television and concert footage available and memorized setlists.

Personally, Louis quite liked the Beatles. Sure, their music was quite dated at this point, and today people heard more covers of their songs than the original. Louis however, loved it. He loved listening to older music and studying how music became the way it was today. Today’s music was a mix of wild and outrageous tech sounds and no music at all. Currently acapella was very in at the moment, leaving musicians in an awkward place.

Three months into studying the Beatles, he was assigned a second mission in the same year. To go back in time just a few days later and capture the .45 Colts vs Cubs game. The .45 Colts changed their name to the Houston Astros a year later, so footage of the baseball team at the time was scarce. Louis didn’t mind at all. Baseball was his favorite sport, partly because it was the only one, he really understood. None of his family got into sports except her step-dad, Peyton. While he lived in Chicago, she found herself rooting for the Cardinals more than the Cubs or White Sox, thanks to her step-dad’s obsession with them. He had grown up in St. Louis but moved to the windy city for a job and eventually met Louis’s mom.

They met through a mixer night at a bar after they had matched on an app. Only people who had matched could go to the mixer night, so everyone there would be on their first date. Louis’s mom had gone to the mixer and immediately hit it off with Peyton. A year later when Louis was seven, they got married.

Louis grew to like Peyton. He was a nice and funny guy, who tried to be in Louis and Liam’s lives as much as their moms. Peyton didn’t know about the lab or the things that took place there. It was against the law to tell him about TARC and where Louis went after school every day. They all felt bad for lying to him, especially his mom, but they knew there was no way around it.

Three months before his travel was to take place, Louis began studying scorecards for the specific game she was attending, so he knew which innings to pay special attention to. He also had to begin talking like he was in 1964 in the lab every day. When his mission had first been assigned to him, teachers at the lab would give him pages of slang he was to memorize. He was quizzed on their definitions and how they were used in conversation. At three months, he felt confident that he could have a conversation in 1964, and not give himself away. After that, it was a rule that when he stepped foot into the lab, he was to speak like he was in 1964, no matter who it was with or what it was about. The exception was today during launch. He was given a pass because his instructors knew he was nervous and had other things on his mind.

When given both of his missions, Louis was to come back to the present after the concert and travel back to the day of the baseball game the following day. While Louis agreed, it was a good plan, he didn’t necessarily agree with it. The concert and the baseball game took place only a few days apart in the same city. He had spent six months of training for roughly ten hours in 1964. He brought this concern up with his instructors and his dad. He wanted to stay in the past in-between the concert and baseball game and truly experience the culture he had been studying. He had invested interest in life, lived in 1964, and what a day in life there was really like. After some begging and discussion with Liam, who was concerned about potentially harming the timeline and Administrator Bray, it was agreed upon that he could stay September 5th-9th in 1964.

With this small victory for Louis, some new rules and plans were made for his mission. After Liam did extensive research, he was given a list of places he wasn’t allowed to go each day. These places were where car accidents, shootings, or other incidents took place that could potentially put him in danger. He was also warned about stopping any events from happening. Anything he did could greatly impact the timeline of the current future he lived in now.

It was nerve-wracking to Louis that he could potentially mess up the timeline. One wrong move and he could change the existence of someone’s life or an important event happening. He was especially worried about the well-being of his family and Niall. What was he supposed to do if he came back from the future to find one of them no longer existed?

Louis looked at the clock on the monitor. He was only five minutes away from 1964, which means he was already back in the 60s. He sat up straight and positioned his feet on the pedal before switching back to manual drive. The car was still filled with the sound of Beatles songs being played one after the other.

Time-traveling was bleaker than the simulator made it seem. There was no scenery like it would be taking an actual road trip. All Louis saw out the windshield and widow were a mixture of blackish gray color that sometimes mixed with light hues of pinks and oranges. It reminded Louis of driving through the horizon of a sunset as the colors quickly whirled by the windows fading into the rearview mirror. It was pretty at first, but now it was dull and made him feel a twinge of exhaustion as he neared his destination.

He could see 1964 in the distance, it looked like a picture hung on a wall of gray and black. It was approaching fast, as Louis began to see the picture moving and come to life. He gripped the steering wheel hard turning her knuckles white as the picture was right in front of the car, and clear as day. He took a deep breath and readied herself as he eased the speed to an even sixty, and the time machine drove through the portal.

In an instant, Louis was on a busy road in downtown Chicago. Cars were in front and behind him, as the time machine now looked like a Chevrolet 1957 One-Fifty-two-door sedan that was black with white stripes on the side. The monitors in the middle disappeared and were replaced with an old looking radio with a local station quietly playing in the background.

Louis learned in training, that when he arrived, to civilians the time machine would arrive so fast that it would appear in the blink of an eye on the road. The person in front of him might be a little confused but quickly forget about it.

As he sat at a light in traffic waiting for it to change, he reached over to his suitcase and took out the old-fashioned paper map of Chicago. The location of the amphitheater, baseball stadium, and hotel nearby was already circled in red marker by someone in the lab. He glanced up at the street sign then back to the map to figure out where he was. It turned out he wasn’t too far from the amphitheater and made a right at the light. 

It was currently 6 pm, But the concert didn’t start till 8:30. He knew it was sold out and needed to get there early with plenty of time to spare so he wouldn’t be late for the opening act. As he turned onto the street of the amphitheater, he saw the line of people that stretched down the block. Clusters of girls were grouped together talking excitedly and holding signs in their hands they hoped the band would see from wherever their seats were.

He paid to park in a garage a mile down the road from the amphitheater. He took his suitcase out of the passenger seat and made his way to the trunk of the car. He placed the suitcase in the trunk and opened it up taking out his ticket to the show, the map, his I.D, and some of the cash. He slid the items into his pocket and closed the suitcase and the trunk. He smoothed out his shirt with his hands and adjusted the glasses on his face. He felt empty without his phone in his hand but brushed that thought away as he began walking towards the line of concert-goers.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please indulge me here with the Beatles this is the last chapter there really mentioned. Also, please enjoy our first glimpse of Alex!

Louis looked at his white sneakers as he made his way down the block. A crowd of people were making their way down the block towards the line as Louis joined them blending in. The walk wasn’t long before he was at the back of the line with many people joining behind him. The line stretched multiple blocks down. Louis assumed the people at the front of the line probably had been waiting all night, while the people arriving late may be coming from the airport after they may have been lucky enough to sneak a glimpse of the fab four as they arrived at O’Hare. There were some younger girls arriving with their parents who probably had to wait till their parents got off work before they could anxiously wait in line for the doors to open.

Louis wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do for close to two hours. In the future, he would have sat down and pulled out his phone or tablet and streamed what was on TV or listened to music while playing games. Phones and tablets were paper thin and could be folded and rolled to store in pockets easier. When taken out the screen would still be flat and smooth, and the screen could be projected and interacted with off the screen. Louis didn’t even have his smartwatch that would track how many steps he walked, and he could text and make video calls that were also projected from the screen. Now Louis just had to sit against the wall of the building next to his and stare at the traffic. All the other concert-goers were also sitting or standing in groups of people they came with or recently met and hit it off.

A part of Louis wanted to join a conversation and test out his practiced slang. He also wanted to talk about the Beatles with other people who found them as captivating as Louis. However, this wasn’t like in the lab. If Louis messed up in the lab he would be reprimanded and corrected. If he slipped up here, he could potentially expose himself. Of course, if he said a different word no one would guess right away that he was from the future, but it could mess up the meaning or timeline of different slang in the future. Which doesn’t seem like a big deal, but Liam would have his head if he messed that up. Nothing, not even the most minor thing was supposed to change in the timeline. He decided not to actively start a conversation with someone in line. He would only talk to them if they spoke first, then he would have to respond back, or he would seem rude and unfriendly.

Louis sat against the brick wall and with his legs stretched out and his arms folded over his chest, for what felt like forever. He watched the cars drive by and listened to the busy sounds of car horns, people chatting, and the staccato clicking of heels on the sidewalk as people walked by. Louis glanced at the girls littered all over the sidewalk in front and behind his. Some were young, but most appeared to be around his age. He thought they were all so beautiful, many in their skirts and dresses. Many had their hair done up in up-dos or bobs. Some had their long hair tightly curled or perfectly straightened, flowing freely down their backs. Louis would consider himself bisexual. He had dated males, and he had dated females and found them both equally attractive.

In 2064, all gender identities and sexual orientations were widely accepted and protected under laws. While there was still a small group of people who were still against accepting anything other than men and women together, most people just accept it as a way of life. Louis knew he was bisexual when he was thirteen and started finding various people attractive in his classes. The year prior in his semester-long sexual education class, he was taught in detail all the various sexual orientations and genders people frequently identify with. A bill was passed in 2037 to mandate all schools in the United States to have new extensive sexual education classes that taught not just prevention, and contraceptive but sexual identities, orientations, and resources.

Louis’s parents, step-dad, and Liam were all very accepting and encouraging when he told them. He wasn’t very worried about telling them, Liam had come out two years prior as pansexual, and they all were very supportive of him.

A beautiful girl with black hair in front of Louis turned around and looked down making eye contact with him. Louis gave a little wave but didn’t offer up an actual greeting.

“Hey, are you excited about the show?” The girl said, taking a small step towards Louis. Louis stood up from the ground brushing his hands over his pants and smoothed out his shirt

“Yeah, I’m really excited, I’ve been waiting a while for this. Are you?”

The girl smiled fondly, and his eyes lit up. “Me too! I’ve been waiting so long to see them. I became a fan of theirs ever since I heard _Love Me Do_ play on the radio!”

Louis could tell the Beatles was a very passionate subject for this girl, but he could indulge in this. He didn’t have anyone to talk to at home aside from training purposes, but that felt more like work. Louis smiled politely back at the girl and asked.

“What’s your favorite song by them?”

Again, the girl’s eyes grew big with excitement and he acted to think for a moment before blurting out “ _Hold Me Tight_! What’s yours?”

Louis knew the answer to that question right off the bat. During his training, as he listened to all of their albums, his favorite song changed a few times. However, once he had heard all their songs, he could confidently say his favorite song. It happened to be a song that he knew he would hear live at the concert tonight which he was excited about.

“Mine’s _If I Fell.”_

The girl nodded his head enthusiastically. “Cool Cool, have you seen their movie?”

Louis nodded. “I have, it’s groovy.” The girl looked pleased and opened her mouth to respond when the girl in front of them began talking to the girl. The girl turned around and the two girls started talking animatedly while Louis took it as his escape.

Louis didn’t mind talking with people, but he also didn’t want to be stuck talking to that girl until the doors opened. He slid back down to the sidewalk and continued to watch the cars go by as he waited. He only had to wait a little while longer before cheers and screams were heard from towards the front of the line. The line then slowly began to inch forward as the doors were opened and tickets were checked as people slowly made their way into the theater. Louis waited to get his ticket out of his pocket in fear of someone yanking it out of his hands or the wind blowing it away. He tended to be a worrier and was constantly paranoid of all the things that could go wrong.

It took another fifteen minutes of the lining inching forward before he finally made it to the front of the line and handed over his ticket to be checked, before being waved inside. He glanced down at the section and seat number printed on his ticket. His seat was on the floor in the center, two rows back. It was a prime ticket that many girls would kill for. Louis wasn’t quite sure how the lab got this ticket without messing up the timeline, but he didn’t ask, and no one offered answers. That was often how things worked at the lab and it seemed to work. Things weren’t fully questioned, and things ran smoothly.

Louis walked through the corridor that led to the floor seating and began walking up the side to row B. Many people were pouring into the amphitheater from various corridors all around trying to find their respective seats. He found his row and excused himself, past people, till he found his seat number. The only better seat would have been the one in front of his in the first row, other than that Louis was convinced it was the best seat in the house. He would have no problem getting pristine video and live audio of the concert to bring back to the lab.

Louis took a seat and turned around taking in the amphitheater. The venue was huge and oval in shape. He knew by the start of the show every seat in the house would be filled, including the ones behind the stage. People didn’t care if they had to stare at the back of the band, they just wanted to be in the same room as them.

Soon the seats next to and around Louis filled up with people as the first opening act of four was getting ready to go on. Girls held signs in their hands that had funny puns on them or said something about which Beatle was their favorite. Some of the people in the first row of the balcony had hung banners up, in hopes that the band would see them while performing.

When the first act came out Louis clicked the tiny button on the sign of his glasses back by his ear. The camera activated and adjusted its focus and white balance automatically. Louis just had to keep his glasses on his face, and they would do the rest. For the opening acts, he could look around and get the audience’s reaction. The lab didn’t care as much about the opening acts, as they did about the Beatles. Once they came on Louis was to only get a video of them and preferably no one else.

The first three opening acts went by rather quickly. Most of the audience stayed in their seats and politely bobbed their heads during the songs and clapped when they were over. A few people got on their feet and danced with their friends if they knew or liked a song, but for the most part, the crowd was rather subdued. Louis knew when the Beatles came on the atmosphere would drastically change. Nervous energy already ran through the room and grew like a snowball the closer it got to the Beatles coming on.

During the last song of Jackie DeShannon’s set, Louis glanced behind himself to the left and noticed a grown man and a boy around his age dancing. The man looked like he could be the boy’s father. They were the only ones up dancing in their section, so they were easy to spot even though they were about ten rows back. Even from far away and in the dark, Louis could see how beautiful this boy was. His long brown hair gelled back he swayed his hips to the beat. This duo did not seem to care what other people thought as they continued dancing until the song ended.

Louis watched till the end then turned back around, preparing for his actual job. Since his glasses were already recording, he knew he wouldn’t miss anything, he just wanted to make sure he was looking ahead when the Beatles came on stage. He had the urge to look back and see if the duo had sat down, or if they were still standing, but he refrained from doing so. He knew when he got back to 2064, he would be able to watch the video he recorded, and he was sure the lab would enjoy the couple dancing.

The energy and excitement in the room were overwhelming as girls screamed, and people chanted “we want the Beatles” as everyone waited for them to take the stage. The people around Louis were all chatting away excitedly and constantly glancing over at the stage in fear of missing something. Security lined the bottom of the stage all the way around, making sure no one could get through. Louis knew once the Beatles took the stage many people would try to rush it. He just hoped the people around him stayed somewhat calm and didn’t cause any problems that would interfere with his recording.

The lights dimmed and the band ran out on stage taking their places. The level of screams that erupted through the room was piercing as Louis stood up from his chair excitedly. He refrained from joining in the screaming, so the audio wouldn’t get messed up. The band opened with the song _Twist and Shout_ and everyone happily sang and danced along. Louis couldn’t look back to see if everyone was on their feet or if some people remained sitting to watch the concert in a calmer manner. He could tell the people around him were standing and probably weren’t going to sit the rest of the concert.

Louis watched the concert with a sort of awe and disbelief that he was actually here seeing the Beatles in their prime. He felt like the luckiest person in the world, from his time period, to be able to have the privilege to do this.

As the concert went on, he made sure to look at all the members of the band and zoomed in a little on the side of his glasses to get close-ups. Then he zoomed out and continued recording a wide shot of all four of them. Louis knew the setlist by heart and knew that after _Can’t Buy Me Love,_ came _If I fell._ Louis felt like a fangirl and resisted the urge to scream with the rest of the crowd. There was something about hearing a favorite song live from a band that sent a wave of happiness through Louis. The song began and Louis made sure to zoom in on Paul and John as their shared a mic and harmonized the whole song. Louis felt shivers run down his spine hearing the song live in person and clapped as loud as he could when the song was done.

They played four more songs after that, then they all took a bow together and thanked the crowd before leaving the stage. Louis hit the stop button on the side of his glasses then turned his head to look at the rest of the venue. He continued to clap as he saw everyone on their feet clapping, screaming, cheering, and chanting various things. Even the older adults who came with their children were smiling and standing.

He turned back around and stared back at the empty stage as all the lights in the venue came on and people began to leave. Louis stared up at the now-empty stage and the instruments that now sat on their stands. He smiled to himself, he had officially completed the first part of his mission, and as far as he knew he didn’t fuck it up.

He wasn’t in a hurry to get out of the amphitheater because he knew it would take a while with everyone trying to leave at once. He sat back down in his seat and decided to wait a few minutes before he tried to leave. Some girls were still trying to get past security and onto the stage, while others had fallen to the floor at some point and had people trying to revive them.

After a few minutes of waiting Louis got up from his seat and made his way back to the corridor he had entered from. He moved with the wave of people still trying to get out and took a deep breath when a rush of fresh cool air hit his face. He hadn’t realized he had been sweating till the cool night air hit his shirt that now clung to his.

People leaving the venue were walking in all different directions trying to hail a taxi or find which way their car was parked. Louis began following a line of people towards the direction the time machine was parked until something stopped him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh by the way I have a Tumblr if anyone wants to follow me! It's 27moments

The boy and the man that were dancing were walking ahead of him in the group of people. What caught Louis’s attention was the duo turning off the sidewalk and into a dark alley in-between two tall buildings. No one else seemed to pay any mind as they continued to their destination. Louis was a curious soul, and he smelled an adventure lurking in the distance.

He stopped right before the alley next to the building and leaned up against it, so he didn’t block the flow of people continuing down the sidewalk. He peered around the corner and faintly saw the two walking down the alley towards a man. Louis watched as the group chatted for a minute before being waved into the door of a basement. A small amount of light shined through the door as it opened casting shadows on the guy that stayed guard at the door. He could also hear the faint sound of music that quickly faded with the door was closed with a distant _thud_.

Louis wanted to know what could possibly be down in the basement of an alley and why a man was keeping watch. The two at the concert looked nothing, but harmless. He couldn’t imagine them being in a secret drug ring. Could they be racist? It was the 60s after all, maybe they were part of the KKK. He pondered this but wasn’t convinced this was the actual case. He knew this wasn’t a problem spot on the map where he wasn’t supposed to be. So, he thought nothing too bad could be happening.

The Alley was only lit by the light of windows in the building above and the moon that was dimmed by the passing clouds that hung in the sky. The line of people was starting to dwindle, and people started to walk by few and far between. The road was now busier with people trying to drive home. Louis looked around before walking down the alley. He looked left and right at the shadows cast onto the walls of the buildings, by the trash cans that sat to one side.

As he approached the guy in the alley, Louis realized he was much bigger than he appeared from far away. He was now standing at full alert above the stairs the two from the concert had gone down. The man stood with his arms crossed over his black leather jacket and gave him a stern look.

“Can I help you?” The man spoke cautiously as Louis approached. He hadn’t really prepared what he was going to say. Thankfully he had a talent for bullshitting things off the top of his head.

“Umm…hello, yes…the boy who just entered a few minutes ago, uh we met at the Beatles concert tonight and he invited me to come here.” Louis tried to sound as confident as he could with his response, but it was hard when he felt intimidated by the man’s stare.

Louis could tell the man was taken back by his response as he glanced toward the door and then back to him with a friendly smile.

“Oh yes, of course, I just need to see your I.D.” Louis was confused as to why but didn’t question it as he pulled out his I.D from his pants pocket and handed it over to the man. The man briefly looked it over then handed it back to his. “Have a nice time.” He said as he stepped out the way of the stairs and Louis quickly passed by.

He climbed down the steps to the black unmarked door. As he stood right outside of it, he could hear the sound of music and people laughing. He opened the door and walked into a lowly lit big room that was set up like a bar. One wall had a wooden counter that looked to be portable. There was a folding table behind the wooden counter that contained multiple bottles of soda and alcohol and various glasses for it to be poured into. A woman with short hair stood between the counter and table and was pouring drinks as people came up and ordered them.

Towards the back wall, there were a few small square tables and chairs set up where some people sat around drinking and talking. The wall opposite of the bar was a jukebox that filled the room with music as many people danced along on the open floor.

It took Louis a minute to realize most of the people dancing, were dancing with someone of the same sex. Louis was so used to seeing that in the future it didn’t even occur to him that this was not the norm here. This was something rare. Somehow, he stumbled upon an underground gay bar, which at this time was illegal.

Louis knew he should turn around, and head back to the time machine. If these people were found by the police, they would all get arrested, and Louis couldn’t afford to mess up the mission, because his curiosity got the best of his. Instead of moving, Louis just stood there taking everything in. He didn’t want to leave; he felt an odd sense of peace and home when he walked through the club’s doors. He had been acting a part all day, and while he still had to act that part, he could let one guard down. Here it was okay to admire the pretty boys, and even tell them so, without it coming across as weird.

He looked over at the people dancing and noticed that the boy from the concert was looking at him. He smiled at him and the boy smiled back, then began walking towards him.

“I can tell your new here.” The boy said over the music and laughed.

“Really? What gave it away?” Louis played along with a smile.

“You look like you’ve just spotted gold and you’re too in shock to move.” The boy said moving closer and cautiously placing his hand on Louis’s forearm. “Come on, it’s much more fun when you join the party. Let me buy you a drink.”

Louis nodded and smiled “Okay” and was led over to the makeshift bar by the brunette. “I’m Louis by the way.” He said leaning his head closer to the boys so he could hear him.

The boy looked back at his with a soft smile as he led them over to the bar and leaned against it. “m’name’s Alex.” He put out his hand for Louis to shake. Louis took his cold hand in hiss and lightly shook it before they slowly pulled their hands back. Their fingers lingered with each other before losing contact altogether. Louis blushed and looked away and Alex turned back to the bar.

The bartender with short hair smiled at Alex and made his way over to that side of the bar. “Hey Alex, find someone new?”

Louis didn’t miss the slight blush that crept on Alex’s face as he turned towards Louis and gestured to him with his hand. “This here is Louis. I just saw this hunk looking confused over by the door.”

“Ah, well welcome to the club. What are you two drinking tonight?”

“I’ll take a Moscow Mule,” Alex said then they both turned and directed their attention to Louis.

“Oh, I’ll have a Manhattan please.” Alex nodded his head in approval and the bartender turned to fix the drinks.

“So, who told you about this place?” Alex said casually resting his elbow against the bar. Louis mimicked the position so they could easily hear each other over the music.

Louis sheepishly looked away and took a deep breath. He knew it wouldn’t be long before someone would realize he hadn’t been invited, and then kick him out. He hoped the worst they would do is kick him out and not anything else. He assumed they wouldn’t want to draw attention to themselves, though so he would probably be safe. These people seemed fairly nice. They just wanted to be themselves for a few hours at night, before they were forced to go back to living their other lives in the public eye.

“I wasn’t actually invited here by anyone. I saw you and that man over there” Louis pointed to the man still dancing on the dance floor now with another man. “walking on the sidewalk and you both turn into the alley. I was just curious what was down here, so when the guy at the door asked who invited me I said you. But honestly, it’s okay! I like boys too! I can’t believe I found this place.”

A range of emotions swept through Alex’s face while Louis was talking before the look of fondness rested on his features. “Well, I have to say that’s a first for someone accidentally stumbling into this place. Usually, people only find it through word of mouth, and we try to keep it that way. I guess my looks enticed you in.” Alex said as he winked. Louis felt his cheeks turn red.

The bartender turned back to the bar with their drinks and placed them down in front of them. “That’ll be 50 cents per drink.” The woman said, and Alex pulled a dollar out of his pocket and handed it over.

“I’ve got both of our drinks,” Alex said and the bartender nodded before going to the other end of the bar to take someone else’s order. 

“Thank you,” Louis said, as he picked up his drink and took a sip. Alex followed suit and they were both quiet for a moment. The drink was strong, just the way Louis liked it. It was hard to believe drinks used to be this cheap. Back in 2064, the same drink would be close to ten dollars for one.

“While I don’t know if I would say enticed, I did think you were attractive when I saw you.” Louis took another sip of his drink hoping it filled him with more confidence and smooth flirting. Alex laughed at his comment then quickly finished his drink and placed his glass back on the counter.

“Another round Ester, when you get a chance,” Alex shouted towards the bartender. The bartender, Ester, waved at his in acknowledgment and turned back around. Louis quickly finished off his drink and set his glass next to Alex’s. “Once we get our next round of drinks, would you like to dance?”

“Sure, I’d like that,” Louis said swaying a little closer to Alex. He could slowly feel the alcohol wash over his body in waves. He felt on the verge of tipsy, but he knew another drink or two and he would be drunk. Louis was surprised no one asked to see his I.D. He was only eighteen, it was technically illegal for him to be drinking here. At home, the legal drinking age of wine and beer had been lowered to eighteen. It was still twenty-one to buy or drink hard liquor. Of course, this didn’t stop Louis and Niall from drinking hard liquor, it just made it trickier for them to get. 

Ester brought over another round of the same drinks and Louis pulled a dollar from his pocket and paid for them this time. Alex lightly encircled Louis’s wrist with his hand and gently pulled them towards the dance floor. The jukebox had just begun playing _Runaround Sue_ , and many people were happily drinking and dancing around with each other throughout the dance floor. Alex led them to a spot close to the jukebox where the music was loudest. He let his hand drop from Louis’s wrist and began to dance with the beat.

Louis had watched a few videos of teens dancing in the 1960s for training, but never had to actually learn the dances. He had no idea what he was doing, so he just tried to imitate how everyone else was dancing. It looked like a lot of footwork. Alex kept his legs mainly together but moved and kicked his feet in certain ways with the music. Louis tried to copy his, hoping it looked somewhat right. They both carefully swayed their arms to go with their feet, careful not to spill their drinks.

Alex began singing along to the song as he closed his eyes. This was a different dance than the one he did at the Beatles concert; this one seemed a little more intimate. Louis was enthralled and slightly turned on.

Louis continued to sip on his alcohol as he danced, and his already sloppy rhythm became embarrassing. He stopped trying to copy Alex, and just decided to sway his hips to the beat of the song. _Runaround Sue_ ended and _Surfin U.S.A_ began to play. A few people dancing cheered in excitement as many couples changed up their dancing to fit the new beat. Louis loved this song, and Alex seemed to as well as Louis saw his eyes light up when it began playing.

By the time that song was over, they both needed refills on their drinks. Louis was impressed Alex could knock them back just as fast as he could. Normally people told Louis he drank too fast, but apparently, Alex did too. They went back to the bar, this time Louis ordering a Whiskey Sour and Alex a Blue Hawaiian.

Louis felt the alcohol's warmth throughout his body. He could feel his cheeks were burning red and his head was feeling a delightful fuzziness. Louis could tell Alex was in the same state. His cheeks were tinted bright red and he swayed a little when he walked and stood at the bar. 

This time on the way back to the dance floor, Alex grabbed Louis by the hand and intertwined their fingers together. Louis didn’t complain, as he let Alex drag his back to their dancing spot. Another upbeat song was playing, and Alex kept their fingers intertwined as he spun himself around and started to dance again. This time Louis noticed both of their dancing was now sloppy and out of rhythm, but they both laughed and continued to attempt to dance. Louis was feeling great and was thrilled to be privileged enough to dance with this beautiful boy. The mission, time machine, and timeline were pushed far back in his mind and rolled over by the more frequent waves the alcohol sent through his body.

A slow song started to play from the jukebox and everyone on the dance floor moved closer to their partners. Alex took their linked hands and gently pulled Louis closer to his. He quickly finished his drink then set his glass down on the floor by the jukebox. Louis watched and then did the same thing. Alex cautiously placed his hand on Louis’s hip, while Louis placed his now free hand on his shoulder. They began to sway together to the song out of rhythm. The music was too loud to talk over it so they both smiled at each other and giggled from the alcohol.

The dance was messy and uncoordinated. They were now both in drunk states, causing them to keep bumping into each other and almost falling over on more than one occasion. Towards the end of the song Alex was in Louis’s arms and leaning against his. Alex’s arms were connected behind Louis’s neck, with his head resting on Louis’s shoulder.

When the song was over another fast-paced song began to play and the club went back to dancing with the beat. Louis and Alex swayed their hips a little to the music but stayed in each other’s arms, leaning on one another. Alex brought his head up from Louis’s shoulder and rested his forehead against Louis’s. He closed his eyes and Louis surged forward closing the small gap between them.

This kiss was soft and light at first. It only lasted a few seconds before Louis pulled back, their foreheads still together. This time Alex brought their lips back together and the kiss became a little more urgent. Louis kissed back Alex and their mouths fought for dominance. Alex began walking backward and Louis followed him, their lips still connected. Louis felt when Alex’s back hit the wall. Louis, put his palms flat on the wall on either side of Alex’s face, caging his in. 

They made out for a few minutes longer before the main lights in the club were turned on and everyone was slowly making their way to the door. Louis looked around for a clock and noticed one above the bar on the wall, that read 2 a.m. Alex grabbed ahold of Louis’s hand and began to lead him with the rest of the people toward the door. He swayed and wobbled as he did so, and almost fell over if Louis hadn’t caught his arm to stabilize his.

The two drunkenly made their way to the door and out into the cool air of the night. Alex let go of their hands the minute they were out of the club, to Louis’s displeasure. He quickly remembered it was for the best though. If they were caught holding hands or looking anything like a couple they could get in serious trouble.

“Come with me back to my place.” Alex slurred as he stumbled down the alley. Louis was too drunk to say no, let alone to navigate to his hotel.

“Okay.” He giggled and Alex led the way down the street towards his home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS
> 
> Smut in this chapter as well as some homophobic language and abuse

It was a good twenty-minute walk to Alex’s apartment from the club. The chill of the night air felt good on Louis’s hot skin. The sidewalks were quiet, even for it being a Saturday night. Cars still drove at a constant pace down the street, casting a never-ending glow of light and shadows towards Alex and Louis as they walked.

When they got to the steps of the apartment building, Alex turned towards Louis and put his finger to his lips. “Shh, we have to be quiet, and make sure not to wake my dad.”

“Promise I’ll be quiet.” Louis slurred and stumbled up the steps after Alex, holding onto the railing.

Alex opened the front door and stepped into the dimly lit foyer. Louis followed in behind him and made sure to close and lock the door for Alex who had already begun descending up the steps. He took the stairs one at a time, holding onto the railing as if his life depended on it. When he reached the top of the stairs, he looked over to see Alex leaning against a front door with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Took you long enough!” He mock whispered, pushing himself off the door. He reached in the pocket of his jeans and produced a key. He unlocked the door and slowly and softly cracked it open. The door squeaked a little and he cringed, waving Louis to follow him.

They walked into the small apartment and Alex flicked on a lamp that sat on a table to the left. He grabbed Louis’s wrist and put his finger to his lips again as he lightly tugged him down a hallway to a door on the right side. He quietly opened the door and flicked the light overhead on. Alex closed the door behind Louis and toed off his shoes to the side. Louis did the same then stood swaying in the middle of the room. Alex came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his middle, Alex’s breath tickling his neck. They swayed together for a moment before Louis felt sloppy kisses being pressed to his neck. He turned around in Alex’s arms and connected their lips together in a slow kiss that turned urgent. Alex began to walk them backward till Louis’s legs hit the back of Alex’s bed. Alex pushed his back onto the mattress and moved to straddle his waist. Alex leaned down and kissed Louis with passion, dominating the kiss.

The kiss got fiercer as clothing was being removed. Their hands began to roam freely over each other’s bodies, skin touching skin. Both gasped and moaned with sounds of approval as arousal flooded their bodies. They continued touching and kissing, seeing each other through their climaxes by rutting against each other. They fell asleep soon after both hot and sweaty, tangled in each other’s arms.

***

Louis woke with fright as a deep booming voice of a man came yelling from the hallway. Then a pounding came at the bedroom door and Alex was looking at him in fear. He quickly scrambled out of bed whispering for Louis to hide.

“Just a second,” Alex yelled as he rushed to throw on clothes from a dresser. Louis didn’t know where to hide so he burrowed himself deep under the covers on the bed, making himself small. His head was pounding and his stomach queasy from the night before. He was completely naked, with his clothes discarded somewhere on the floor.

Louis had the covers over his face with just a crack of light showing so he could see with one eye what was happening. Alex had just become decent when his dad barged through the door, not waiting for Alex to tell him it was okay. Louis quickly put the covers down and tried not to move or make any noise.

“Do you know what time it is? It’s almost noon on Sunday and you’ve missed church! How late were you out last night? You better not have gone to that club again or so help me!”

Alex interrupted. “No dad, I swear I just went to the concert and came home. The concert just got out late and it took a while to get out of the venue with all the people.”

“You better not be lyin to me boy, I will not put up with it.” Alex’s dad must have gazed over to the bed. Louis suddenly heard heavy footsteps move closer to the bed, and a slight gasp escape from Alex. “Do you have someone in your bed?” His dad asked furiously.

Louis’s heart rate picked up as he tried to stay as still as possible and not breathe. He felt the covers being snatched away from him and cold air hit his naked body in an instant as he cried in protest. He quickly sat up and brought his knees to his chest trying to shield his naked body.

“What the fuck! I knew it, I knew you didn’t learn your lesson the first time, and you were still living in sin.” Alex’s dad screamed between Louis and Alex. Alex looked on the verge of tears as he looked between Louis and his dad. Louis looked at Alex’s father in fear. He could turn him into the police. This whole situation could mess up the timeline, all because he was so stupid and careless.

Alex’s father turned toward Alex and slapped him across the face. “You will not be a homosexual in my house!” He screamed, slapping him again with more force. Louis sat on the bed stunned. He didn’t know if he should intervene or not. Alex’s dad stepped away after that moving towards the door. “I can’t even look at you right now. Get that boy out of my house in 5 minutes or I’m calling the cops.” He left the room slamming the door and his footsteps could be heard retreating down the hallway.

Louis and Alex both stayed in stunned silence for a moment catching their breath. Alex moved his hand to his now bright red cheek and hissed when his fingers made contact. A few tears now ran down his face and he quickly tried to wipe them away.

Louis quickly got up from the bed and began putting on his clothes that lay all over the floor. His head still hurt, and waves of nausea hit him as he stood up, but he tried to ignore it for the time being. He did not have time to get sick, he needed to get out of here as quickly as possible before more things went wrong. If he had not been here in the first-place Alex’s dad would have never found them, and Alex would never have been hit. Now his actions could cause horrible repercussions for Alex in the future. 

He finished dressing then moved over to stand in front of Alex. He brought his hand up to lightly touch Alex’s swelling cheek.

“I’m sorry,” Louis whispered. He wanted to add _for being here in the first place_ , but he just left it at that. He leaned in and pecked his lips before pulling back. Alex let out a drawn shaky breath as he stared back at him. “I should go before your dad comes back. Are you going to be okay?” Louis continued to whisper.

“Yeah,” Alex said in a faint whisper and nodded his head. “Just go now, before he comes back.”

Louis nodded and turned around to head out. He turned back and glanced one more time at Alex, before turning and heading for the door. He shut the bedroom door behind him and made his way down the hallway quickly. The hallway led to the family room where the front door was. When he got to the family room, he quickly noticed Alex’s dad sitting in a chair with a newspaper. Louis quickly looked down and made a beeline for the door. He swung it open and quickly shut it behind his not looking back.

He quickly walked down the stairs and out of the building, and down a block before he stopped to catch his breath. His stomach was now in complete turmoil and he bent over and began to vomit on a nearby patch of grass. He emptied his stomach till there was nothing left, then leaned his body against a lamp post till his breathing evened out. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked down to evaluate his shirt. Thankfully no vomit got on his clothes. His stomach felt relieved after being empty and was no longer twisting in knots. His head, however, was still pounding and was made worse by the bright sunlight shining in his eyes.

He needed to get back to the time machine and get his things, then find his hotel. He needed food, more sleep, and to desperately use the bathroom. When he was feeling up to it, he began walking down the sidewalk again towards the direction he hoped was the right way. He pulled the map he had out of his pocket and tried to locate where he was. They hadn’t walked too far last night from the club. He looked up at the nearest street sign and tried to find it on the map. He found the street then traced with his finger the way back to the amphitheater. There were only a few turns, but for the most part, it was a straight shot.

As he made his way back, he passed by many shops and restaurants that were locally owned. Some were closed because it was a Sunday. He passed by one small café that was open and bustling with people in their Sunday best, eating brunch after church. He stepped into the café and used their bathroom, then ordered a coffee and donut to go.

He ate and drank as he continued to walk down the sidewalk. When he got to the amphitheater, he knew from there how to find where he parked the time machine. As he walked all he could think about was Alex. He barely knew this boy and already he was compelled by him. He also feared for him. Louis could have just made his life even more of a living hell and there was nothing he could do about it. What if Alex’s dad beat him up worse after he left? What if he decided to turn his own son into the police? Louis doubted the last one. If that were the case, he would have probably turned him in too, but you never knew.

The closer Louis moved to the time machine, the more he started to drag his feet. He knew he had to leave Alex’s home, or his father would come after both of them, but he still felt bad about the situation. He felt drawn to go back to Alex. He couldn’t just leave him there. He feared Alex might have a bad home situation, and Alex probably wouldn’t seek help.

Louis neared the time machine and watched how it got closer with every step. He opened the door and sat in the car, leaning his head against the seat. He let out a deep breath then rested his arms and head on the steering reel facing down. It felt good to be sitting down. His headache was finally easing up.

It was weird for Louis to see the time machine like this. There were no monitors in the middle or a way to call the lab. He had no way of contacting the lab at all during his mission. He assumed if he severely messed up the timeline, by now someone would have come and forced his home. He assumed something in the timeline got off, but maybe it was too small to notice or make a difference in the future, so they let it go.

He pulled out the map from his pocket and unfolded it out across the dashboard. His hotel wasn’t too far away from Alex’s house. He stopped that thought. He couldn’t go back there and make things worse. He needed to move on with his mission. This was supposed to be his few days to explore the city in this time period as he had requested. It was better to just go with what he had originally planned moving forward.

He started the time machine up and pulled it onto the road. He started heading to the hotel. He could take a shower there, then maybe go sight-seeing for a little bit. As he drove through the city, his mind started to wonder. Soon he was heading back the way he had just walked. Buildings and shops looked familiar as he squinted to try to find Alex’s apartment building with the sun glaring through the windows. His actions didn’t fully catch up with his mind until he was pulling up to park in front of Alex’s apartment building. He mentally kicked himself for being so stupid and weak, but he couldn’t resist the urge. He had to make sure Alex was okay, or he would spend the rest of his life speculating what could have happened.

He sat in the time machine thinking everything over. He couldn’t just walk up to the door he just quickly tried to escape from. He didn’t want to call Alex’s father’s bluff on whether he would call the cops on his or not. He just needed to talk to Alex alone, make sure he was okay, and then hopefully move on with his mission as planned.

He decided his best bet would be to wait in the time machine, for either Alex or his father to leave the building. If his father left, then Louis would go knock on Alex’s door. If Alex left, then Louis would hopefully catch his for a moment to chat on the sidewalk. Louis knew either plan was risky, but Louis’s mind was already made up.

***

Louis waited in the car for close to three hours before Alex’s father walked out of the building and down the sidewalk. He hid his face behind the unfolded map so he couldn’t see his when he walked by. While he had been waiting, he had the windows cracked, and the radio on, and he compared the old map to what the city was like in 2064. He really wanted to lie down and take a nap on the seat, but he knew he had to stay focused, he could sleep later.

Once Alex’s father was far enough down the block that he lost sight of him, he got out of the Chevy, and quickly up the steps of the building. He glanced once more down the direction Alex’s father went before swinging the door open and going inside. He climbed the stairs to the right up to the fourth floor and walked over to Alex’s door. Louis stood in front of it for a second trying to piece together in his mind what he was going to say, so he didn’t look stupid or creepy. After he mentally went over what he was going to say, he lightly knocked on the door.

After a few seconds Alex opened up the door a crack to inspect who it was, then all the way when he realized it was Louis. The look of shock, happiness, and fear crossed his features in a matter of seconds as he stood in the doorway. Louis gasped in horror as he took in the sight of Alex with two black eyes, a swollen cheek, and a bust lip. Louis feared what kind of bruises might lay under the clothes Alex wore. 

When Louis gasped, Alex looked down at the floor and hid his body behind the door a little.

“I had to come back to see if you were alright, but I can see you’re not. How bad is it? How bad did he hurt you?” Louis said the last part with more force. He was seeing red, with the anger he felt boiling inside him. That man had no right to lay a finger on Alex, especially because of who he was attracted to.

“Honestly, it’s not as bad as it looks! I was going to put something from the icebox on my eyes and lip, and they should be better in a few days.” Alex said, stepping back out from behind the door.

“This isn’t okay. He shouldn’t treat you like this.” Louis stepped forward and reached his hand out to touch Alex’s cheek before quickly stopping mid-air and retreating his arm back to his side. Alex took notice and took his own step towards Louis.

“Why are you really here Louis?” Alex asked quietly. He sounded so timid and shy. This was a completely different person, than who Louis saw at the concert and met in the club last night. That Alex was confident and outgoing, while this Alex seemed scared and broken. Louis wanted to do whatever it took to get Alex from last night back. He would do anything just to see Alex smile again. Alex was practically a stranger to his, yet he was already meant so much.

“After this morning, I feared your dad might do something like this. I should have never come back with you last night.”

“Did you not enjoy last night?” Alex asked quietly.

“Of course, I enjoyed myself! It was one of the best and most memorable nights of my life, but it was also the cause of this.” Louis waved his hand in the direction of Alex to show what he meant. “Look I don’t want to cause any more trouble for you, I just need to know before I leave, that you’ll be okay.”

Alex genuinely smiled for the first time that day, and it melted Louis’s heart. “I’ll be okay, I think I might go stay with a friend for a while or somethin’. Just need to get out of the place for a few days.”

“I’m staying at the Morrison, why don’t you come with me?” Louis said with the dangerous underlining of hope laced into his voice.

“Why are you staying at the Morrison? Do you have family issues? Alex asked, confused.

“No, I’m from St. Louis and only visiting the city for a week.” While technically Louis wasn’t from St. Louis, he was here visiting for a week. Alex didn’t need to know the extensive details of that, though. 

“Oh…” Alex took a second to ponder this over, then stepped aside and opened the door wide all the way. “Okay, yeah the Morrison sounds good. Let me just pack a few things really quick then we can leave. You can come wait inside if you’d like.”

“What about your dad? When’s he coming back?” Louis asked, glancing behind his towards the stairs he came from.

Alex shook his head. “He won’t be back for at least an hour. I’ll hurry and we’ll be fine.” Louis didn’t know why, but he already trusted Alex. He walked into the small apartment and sat down in one of the chairs in the living room, while Alex went into his room. He was in there for under ten minutes before he came back with a packed bag over his shoulders. “Okay, I’m ready when you are.” He announced, and Louis got up from the chair.

“Okay, my cars parked right outside. I have a map in the car that has the hotel not too far away from here.” Alex nodded as they both made their way out of the apartment and down the steps.

Louis decided to go outside first just to make sure Alex’s father wasn’t coming down the sidewalk when he walked out. To his relief the coast was clear, and they both crossed the sidewalk to Louis’s car. Alex put his bag in the trunk next to Louis’s. Before Louis made his way to the driver’s side, he had the sudden urge to make Alex smile again and try to convey to him that everything would be okay. Without really thinking about it, he wrapped his arms around Alex and gave him a hug. Alex melted into the hug for a brief second before he quickly pulled back and stepped away.

“Are you crazy? We're in public! We have to be careful.” Alex mock whispered. Louis kept forgetting he had to contain himself. Though it was just a hug that could look simple and innocent to the prying eyes, they needed to be careful.

Alex got into the time machine and Louis followed suit. As Louis started it and was pulling away from the curb, he saw Alex’s father walking towards them down the sidewalk at a distance. He smirked to himself and pulled onto the road.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this chapter so much! Enjoy some domestic fluff.

Louis was thankful the time machine completely disguised itself. Now it was on him, to not let it slip out that it was a time machine. He had to get used to just referring to it as a car. He drove through the street towards the hotel. He turned the dials on the middle console of the time machine until the music started softly playing through the car. He hated to drive or sit in silence, especially with another person. He needed music to fill the silence.

Louis looked over at Alex, who was looking out the window, slumped in his seat to where he was curled in on himself. He looked so sad and lost and Louis hated it.

“Hey, are you hungry? Do you want to get some food before we go to the hotel?” Louis asked, hoping to lighten up the mood.

Alex shook his head and went back to looking out the window.

“Are you sure? It wouldn’t take long, and I doubt either one of us has had lunch.” Louis tried again. He didn’t want to push Alex, but he didn’t want him to go without eating.

“I don’t want to go anywhere looking like this,” Alex said sitting up a little and gesturing to his face. “I look like I just lost a fight and my dad could come looking for us.” Louis nodded his head in understanding and let the conversation drop.

They pulled into the parking lot of the hotel a few minutes later and brought their bags inside. Louis went to the front desk to check-in and they were assigned a room on the seventh floor. The women at the counter looked with sad eyes at Alex when the women got a good look at his face. Alex kept looking down at the floor, not making eye contact with anyone.

Louis and Alex carried their bags as they walked to the elevator and waited their turn. When the elevator finally took them to their floor, they moved down the hall, searching for their room number. When they found it, they opened the door and found a small room, with a queen-size bed in the middle and a small dresser against the wall in front of the foot of the bed. There were two nightstands on either side of the bed. One had an alarm clock, a small lamp, and a bible on it. One wall of the room was all windows looking out over the city and bustling traffic below.

They walked in and each put their bags down on one side of the bed. Louis undid his suitcase and pulled out a change of clothes. Then he stopped and pondered, then put them back and took out a pair of pajamas instead. He brought his clothes with him to the small bathroom connected to the room and changed. When he re-entered the room, Alex was already on the side of the bed he chose, curled on his side facing the windows. Louis had the strong urge to slip in bed with his and spoon his, while he whispered in his ear that everything would be alright. He wouldn’t do this though unless Alex asked him to.

The past day had been traumatic for Alex, and Louis understood he needed some time to himself. He was just happy he got Alex out of the apartment and away from his father, even if only temporarily. Louis turned the overhead light off in the room and climbed into his side of the bed. The clock on the nightstand read that it was only 3 p.m., but Louis felt exhausted. He placed his glasses on the nightstand then got under the thin covers and pulled them up by his shoulder as he turned on his side facing Alex’s back but keeping his distance. He closed his eyes and didn’t wake up till hours later.

***

The soft orange glow of the sunrise shone through the sheer white curtain over the window and into the room. It basked everything in a low light that cast shadows everywhere. Louis’s felt warm and heavy. As his mind floated back into consciousness, he realized the warm and heavy feeling was from another body, pressed against his back. Louis cracked his eyes open and tried to blink the sleep out of them as his arms slowly started to move around. An arm was draped over his middle and helped his body close to the body behind his. Louis moved his head slightly around to look behind him. He was greeted with dark brown hair tickling his nose and getting into his mouth.

Alex’s form laid peacefully curled around his body from behind his. Alex’s head was up against his neck and upper back, with his mouth slightly hanging open. Louis turned back around to stare at the wall and pulled the covers up around both Alex and his. He let his eyes shut again and his mind sunk back deep into unconsciousness.

He woke up sometime later when the full sun was shining brightly through the window. The warm presence of Alex was gone, and the bed suddenly felt empty and cold. He stretched out his body and opened his eyes as his stretched limbs were met with a body lying on the edge of the other side of the bed. He turned around facing Alex’s saw him lying on top of the covers. He was already dressed for the day and reading a book he had brought from home. Louis pulled the alarm clock on the table close to him to get a look at it. It was only 8 a.m., yet it felt like so much later. In the future, Louis was used to getting up early every day to get ready for school. The only days he could sleep in were the weekends, when he didn’t have training.

Louis swung his legs over the side of the bed and slowly got up as his bones and muscles popped with protest.

“Good morning,” Alex said as he bookmarked the page he was on and set down his book to rest in his lap.

“Morning,” Louis said, yawning. He picked up his suitcase sitting on the floor at the end of the bed and placed it on the bed pulling out a pair of jeans and shirt someone packed from the lab. He pulled out a fresh pair of underwear and socks too. “I’m going to go shower and change; I’ll be right back.” He told Alex. His voice was still raspy from sleep.

“Okay,” Alex said and picked back up his book to continue where he left off.

Louis went to the bathroom and had a quick shower and changed, then came back and put on his chucks. He moved his suitcase back onto the floor and made his side of the bed. He then went back to the bathroom to style his hair. Back home he would occasionally put on makeup too before going out, but here he couldn’t do that without drawing attention.

He dried his hair and styled it back similar to how Alex had his. He went back to the room and slipped on his glasses he left on the nightstand. Alex was still in the same spot he left, reading his book. Louis bounced back on the bed and faced Alex.

“So, what did you want to do today?” Louis asked, dragging Alex’s attention out of his book.

“Well I took the day off from work, so we can do whatever.” He said swinging his legs over the bed, so his feet touched the floor.

Louis realized he still barely knew Alex. He didn’t even think to ask if he had a job or went to school or did both. “Where do you work?”

“I work in a bookstore a couple of blocks over. Usually, I work five out of seven days that rotate, but while you were sleeping, I used the phone at the front desk to call in sick. The woman working gave me a disapproving look at first, then she saw my face, and that shut her up.” Alex said with a dark chuckle.

“How is your face feeling?”

“It’s sore, but I’ve had worse,” Alex said shrugging his shoulders like it was no big deal.

“Worse? How many times has this happened?” Louis asked horrified.

“Not too many. It was mainly just one other time. Around six months back, the club we went to the other night got raided by the police. At that time, it was in a different location in the city and it had more frequent business. It had been there for a few months at the time and news traveled, so more people like us were coming every night. On Saturday we had well over a hundred people, which was the biggest turnout we’d ever had.” Alex drew a breath in and continued. “Well more people drew more attention and the police. When the cops busted in, there was only one exit, and they were standing in front of it. I got arrested and my dad had to come to pick me up in the middle of the night. After that…that was the worst beating I ever got.”

Louis’s heart sank as Alex looked down at his hands. Louis could see a few tears had escaped his eyes and were rolling down Alex’s face freely. “The police had told my dad why I got arrested, and before that, he had no idea, I was gay. Before that, he had only hit me once before too, but after that day the beating became more frequent. He’s determined to beat the gay out of me, and that’s just my life.” He wiped the tears from his face and stood up a little straighter. “I’m saving up from my job to get my own place. I almost have enough money and then I’ll be out of there and free from him.”

Louis moved the short distance closer to Alex. He slung an arm around his shoulders bringing him into his chest. He wrapped his other arm around Alex’s front and rested his head on top of Alex’s.

“I’m so sorry you have to go through this Alex. I wish there was something more I could do.”

“Just coming back and bringing me here was more than anyone else has ever done for me,” Alex said quietly. Louis sighed again and they stayed like that for a minute. Then Louis brought his arms back to his lap and Alex sat up. Louis wanted to bring up finding Alex wrapped around him in bed last night, but he thought now wasn’t the right time.

“Let’s go on an adventure today,” Louis said, taking Alex’s hand in his and standing up.

“Okay...and where would you like to have this adventure of yours?

“It’s a surprise.” He said, pulling Alex from the bed and to the door. Before he opened the door, he turned around to face Alex and leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. Alex kissed back lightly with his swollen lip, then pulled away smiling. Louis smiled back as they got their bags and left the room.

They put their bags back in the trunk and got into the car (time machine). Louis wanted to go find where his house would be in the future. He knew his neighborhood didn’t exist this long ago and it was probably just trees, but it was an adventure. Louis drove out of the city towards the newly developing suburbs. It was weird to see so many forests and trees right outside the city. He was used to houses, roads, and stores for miles. The only time he ever saw big open spaces of land anymore, was when Peyton would take him and Liam down to St. Louis to catch a ball game every once in a while. Peyton said there used to be farms and cornfields almost the whole drive, but now there’s significantly less.

He took the interstate driving farther out of the city and farther into the rural area, purely going off what he could remember from the future. He turned off at his town’s exit and followed the sign with an arrow pointing to the direction of the town. He drove a few miles down the road until they came up to a very small town with cornfields surrounding it.

“What are we doing in a small farm town?” Alex asked curiously. Louis couldn’t just respond with “oh we're going to see my house that won’t be built for eighty more years”

so instead he went with “I’ve heard good things about this one diner and wanted to check it out.” Which wasn’t a lie. In his hometown, there was a diner that was one of the first buildings ever built in the town. In 2064, it just celebrated its 105th anniversary which means it would be here in the past.

The diner was a town favorite. All the locals went there, but also people in the city traveled into town just to go to the diner because the food was that good. It had been Louis’s grandma’s favorite place to go, which made it his mom’s favorite place to go after his grandma had passed away.

As he drove a little bit into town, he saw the diner on the corner to his right and a rush of excitement coursed through him. It looked just like the old pictures hanging up in the diner showed. The diner had gone through a few facelifts since it opened in 1959 and looked completely different in 2064.

He pulled into the diners parking lot and parked the time machine near the door.

“I thought we could get some breakfast.” Louis looked over to Alex and smiled.

“Breakfast sounds great. Skipping lunch and dinner yesterday was a bad call.” They both laughed and got out of the car. Louis had the urge to hold Alex’s hand, but he mentally kicked himself for even thinking that out in public here. He had to break those thoughts at least for the next few days until he was back in the future and free to kiss or hold a boy’s hand without being arrested or looked down for it.

They walked into the diner and were seated in a booth by a window. Louis probably looked ridiculous with his mouth hanging open and his head moving around as he took it all in. It was a similar layout to the diner Louis knew but all the actual decorations and colors were different.

A waitress came by and got their drink order as they looked over the menu.

“So, did whoever tell you to try this place, recommend what food to try?” Alex asked from behind his menu he was reading over.

Louis looked at his own menu to make sure they had the item he normally got before answering. “Their omelets are the best…So I’ve been told.” He tacked that last part onto the end remembering not to give himself away.

Alex chuckled and set his menu down to the edge of the table. “Alright, an omelet it is then. I think I’ll get a ham and cheese one.” Louis’s stomach growled at the thought and he nodded.

“I think I’m going to get that too. Oh, and some hash browns!” Louis had never tried a ham and cheese omelet before, but he thought why not try now.

The waitress came back with their drinks and took their orders. Alex had ordered black coffee and was deeply inhaling the smell and sighing in content.

“How do you drink that stuff?” Louis said with a disgusted face. “I’ve tried and I can't. It's just too bitter for me. I like the sweet stuff.”

“It may not taste great, but it wakes me up and keeps me going throughout the day,” Alex said sipping on the hot coffee. Louis forgot they didn’t have Starbucks, or energy drinks at this time. If they wanted energy, they just drank coffee.

“So, are you in school?” Louis asked, trying to make conversation.

“No, I can’t afford college right now, but I’m saving up to go to school to be a journalist. I want to report on minorities and represent them in the media” He said with enthusiasm. “Are you in school?”

“That’s amazing! I just started college a few weeks ago.”

“Oh, what year are you? Wait how old are you anyway? Geez, I guess I should have asked that question before.” Alex laughed. Louis joined in laughing.

Louis lowered a voice and leaned closer to Alex. “So, we sleep together, but we don’t even know how old each other is.” They both broke out into a fit of giggles as the waitress came by with their food.

After their food was in front of them, and the waitress left Louis said, “I’m eighteen.” As he cut his omelet up into pieces and took a bite.

“I’m twenty-one, I went into the war when I was eighteen and got out about a year ago,” Alex replied stabbing at his food with a fork. “So, you’re a freshman in college then?”

“Yep, so far so good.” They ate in silence for a little while after that, both of them too busy shoveling food in their mouths to converse.

“This omelet is amazing!” Alex moaned around a bite. The moan should not have affected Louis the way it did, and he had to quickly clear his suddenly dry throat.

“My friend was right; the omelets were a good choice.” Louis agreed. As he said the word friend, he remembered Niall back in 2064 and began to miss him. They had hung out the night before he left, even though Niall had no idea he was going on a little trip. Technically he was only gone for a minute per day he was in the past, so in the lab it would only seem like he was gone for five minutes, seeing everything went as planned. 

They finish up their food and Louis paid for both of them and tipped the waitress before they headed back to the time machine. They got in and Louis started the engine. He pulled back onto the main road and began driving down Mainstreet a little way.

“Where are we off to now?” Alex asked looking over at Louis. Louis looked back at his for a moment and smiled.

“I just want to see something really quick.” Was all he supplied and thankfully Alex didn’t push for more.

Louis drove the way to his future house as far as the current road led. There were many streets missing that existed in the future. He pulled the time machine to the side of the road and turned off the engine.

“Care to go for a walk in the woods? Wait no, that sounded way too creepy, let me try that again. What I want to see is in the woods. Would you like to come with me? Or you can stay here.”

“While yes, that did sound creepy, a walk through the woods sounds lovely. Just don’t murder me while we’re out there.” Alex laughed as both of them opened their doors and got out.

They walked close together through the grass and into the thick forest that lined the edge of the road. The leaves were just starting to change color, painting the treetops with reds, oranges, and yellows. A few leaves had already fallen to the forest floor and crunched underneath them as they walked.

As soon as they were far enough into the forest, where they couldn’t see the road, Louis grabbed Alex’s hand and intertwined their fingers. Louis let out an internal sigh when Alex didn’t pull away and gave a reassuring squeeze to his hand. Louis wasn’t sure if they were at a friend level or maybe friends with benefits? He was just hoping Alex wasn’t looking for more because Louis had to go back home in a few days and there was nothing he could do about it.

Louis led them through the forest until he was fairly certain he was in where his neighborhood would be. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to visualize his street and the houses on each side. He walked a few more steps then stopped abruptly. This had to be where his future house was, or where his future backyard was. He looked up at the giant oak tree and was positive it was the same one in his yard he used to climb all the time as a kid. The tree limbs were curved the exact same way he had memorized, so he could climb up and down and swing from the branches. 

He moved in front of the tree and felt the rough bark on the trunk with his band. Alex moved closer to his from behind.

“Find a particular tree that interests you?” Alex mocked.

Louis turned around in mock shock. “Don’t you see this is the best climbing tree in this forest?” He extended his arms gesturing them towards the tree like a model would gesture to a product. Alex snorted a laugh and shook his head.

“I haven’t met another boy that liked climbing trees since I was little. The older you get the more childish they say it is, unless you’re at war. Then it’s just a survival tactic.” Alex said the last part in a dark voice.

“Well, no one’s around now to tell us we can’t.” Louis was already reaching up towards the first branch and anchoring his right foot on the trunk to pull himself up. He pulled himself up onto the branch then climbed up another, so Alex could climb up with his. Alex looked up at Louis from the ground with an amused smile on his face.

“You know if you keep acting like this, I might fall for you,” Alex said, before jumping up and grabbing the first branch with both his hands. He used his upper strength to pull himself up and swung his legs up onto the branch so that he was straddling it. Louis watched with fondness, and maybe a little lust.

Alex looked up at Louis who was standing up on the branch above him looking down.

“You know I can see a lot of things from this angle?” He laughed. 

“Well considering you saw a lot more a few nights ago, it probably doesn’t matter anymore,” Louis said opening his legs a little wider and laughing. They were both in good spirits and Louis was happy. He was glad Alex could take a day out of his normal life with work, and his abusive asshole of a father, and just enjoy nature.

They stayed in the tree for a few more minutes. Louis climbed down to Alex’s branch and straddled the branch like he was, facing him. They swung their legs that were dangling in midair, as they made light conversation. Then Louis hopped down, and Alex followed suit, his shirt becoming untucked and blowing in the wind completely exposing his abs as he jumped down to the ground. Louis shook his head to hide the red tint painting his cheeks as Alex stood up from the ground and brushed dirt and leaves off himself. He then readjusted his shirt tucking it back in.

"See I fell for you" He smirked as Louis looked at him dumbfounded before quickly swatting him on the shoulder. 

They walked back to the time machine and Louis drove them back to the hotel. The rest of the day they just laid around in their room telling funny stories and discussing interests they had. They went out to dinner for burgers just down the block, then came back and got ready for bed early, since Alex worked in the morning.

They got ready for bed, and the lights were turned off before ten. Louis had already gotten into bed and was just getting comfy when he felt Alex timidly move right behind him, waiting for permission. Louis turned around opening his arms up to show it was okay, and Alex immediately moved into them, a small sigh of contempt escaped from both of them. That night they fell asleep with the comfort of each other’s presence, and they were the only ones that needed to know about it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Smut warning :)
> 
> Also because it's Alex I made up when his birthday is to keep the plot moving so just go with it.

Louis woke up the next morning to Alex untangling himself from Louis and slipping out of bed. Louis groaned at the loss of contact and turned around to face Alex. He cracked his eyes open and blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted to the light. Alex was already across the room, pulling clothes out of his bag.

“What're you doing?” Louis mumbled with his sleep-filled voice.

“I have to get ready for work, go back to sleep.”

Louis laid his back flat against the mattress, and his head flat against the pillow and groaned. “Uggghh, but now I’m already awake.” He whined jokingly then laughed.

“You are something else, you know that?” Alex Laughed as he started undressing only a few feet from Louis.

“Well, how am I supposed to go back to sleep now, with a beautiful boy undressing right in front of me.”

“I guess you won’t be then,” Alex said sauntering forward to the bed naked. “I would normally never be this outgoing and trustworthy to someone I just met, but I feel safe around you.” He crawled up the bed and straddled the blankets on top of Louis.

“I feel the same way about you,” Louis said, placing his hands on Alex’s hips. Alex leaned his head down and Louis leaned his up until their lips met. They made out for a few minutes, with Louis roaming his hands over Alex’s bareback and plains of his chest.

After a few minutes, Alex pulled back and climbed off the bed. “Sorry babe, I can’t be late to work. That was a great start to my birthday, though” He rushed back to where his clothes laid out on his bed, and quickly began to dress.

“Wait it’s your birthday?” Louis nearly shouted sitting upright in the bed.

Alex laughed but didn’t turn around. “Yep, twenty-two today. My dad's probably pissed I’m not home by now. He’s probably called all my siblings, looking for me.”

“You have siblings?”

"Yeah, I have four older siblings, two brothers, and two sisters. They’re all in different parts of the country. Some are married and have kids. Some come to visit more than others but were usually only altogether once a year on Christmas.” Alex finished buttoning up his shirt and tucking it into his pants. “I’m going to go brush my teeth and gel my hair I’ll be right back.”

Louis said “Okay” and Alex disappeared into the bathroom while Louis laid back down on the bed and stretched his body out. He didn’t want to get up just yet, so he waited in bed until Alex returned.

“So, what should we do to celebrate your birthday when you get off work? Also, when do you get off work?” Louis asked right after Alex walked back into the room, looking nicely put together.

“I get off at six, and I was thinking maybe dinner and the drive-in tonight?”

“Sounds great. It’ll be like an actual proper date.” Louis said smiling.

“I’ll meet you back here when I get off work, then we can leave.” Alex walked over to the bed and bent down to kiss Louis on the lips. He pulled back and kissed Louis’s forehead before backing away. “I’ll see you tonight.” He didn’t wait for a response as he glanced at the clock and quickly headed out the door.

Louis wasn’t sure what to do now that he was on his own for the day. Originally the plan was for him to spend all of his days in 1964 alone. He had mentally made a list of places he wanted to visit while he was in the past. This was all before he met Alex. Now he found he wanted to spend every day he was in the past with Alex. He knew he was running out of time, and tomorrow after the game, he’d have to leave Alex for good. The worst part for Louis was Alex was almost guaranteed dead in the future. He couldn’t visit him if he were alive anyway, because he would look like he hadn’t aged a day, and cause suspicion.

Louis got out of bed and showered and dressed. He did his hair and makeup and slipped on his glasses to complete his outfit. Louis didn’t really need glasses to see, in the future bad eyesight could easily be fixed with surgery. He liked the look of glasses though and it helped his outfit blend. More importantly, he had to keep the glasses safe, because it contained all the footage he had recorded at the concert. 

***

He locked the door of their hotel room and made his way down to the parking lot. He drove around the city for a while sightseeing and stopped at a few department stores to look around. It was Monday so many businessmen walked the city streets dressed in suits, going down the block for their lunch break with their co-workers. He stopped for lunch himself at a café nearby.

While he explored the city alone, his mind couldn’t help but wonder about his family. This was one of the longest stints of times he had been away from his family. He knew to them he would only be gone a few minutes in the future, but to him, it was five days. It dawned on him then, that when he got back, he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about Alex. That was assuming him being around Alex hadn’t already messed up the timeline. Then he would have a lot of explaining to do and would probably be resigned from the TARC program.

A part of Louis felt it was worth it though. He had only known Alex for four days, but he already felt a connection to him he had never experienced with anyone else. He felt safe and secure around him, and he wanted nothing more than to protect him from all the evil the world was throwing at him. It pained him to think he only had one more day with Alex, but he knew he would always remember this week for the rest of his life. He also knew, eventually, he would find someone in the future with the same connection he felt for Alex. 

He drove around for a while but soon got bored being by himself. Louis found himself driving back to the hotel by 2 p.m., and still having four hours to kill before Alex got back. Exploring the city by himself wasn’t as fun as his brain had made it seem before his mission. Louis had really wanted to go visit his great grandparents while he was in 1964, but the lab had strictly forbidden it. They said him interacting with people he was related to could inadvertently mess with his existence. Louis very much liked to exist, so he decided to forgo seeking out his family and listen to the lab's advice/command.

Louis headed back to their room and decided to take a nap. He slept for two hours, then listened to music on a small portable radio he bought at one of the stores he had visited. It was nice to have something fill the silence in the room.

Alex opened the door and walked into the room a quarter past six. His hair looked misplaced, as he flung himself down onto his bed and groaned.

“Rough day at work?” Louis asked glancing over to Alex, whose face was still pressed against the blankets.

Alex turned his head to face Louis but stayed in his lying position as he snorted. “Rough, does not even begin to describe the kind of day work has been.” Louis got up from the bed and walked over to Alex’s bed sitting on the edge.

“Well, then you need to forget all about your workday, and get ready to have a fucking fantastic evening,” Louis said with pride. He wasn’t about to let Alex’s birthday be awful just because of the workday he had.

Louis moved to straddle Alex’s back and began gently rubbing his shoulders over his shirt. Alex sighed in content and his shoulders visibly relaxed.

“At this rate, I’ll never want to get up and leave Alex mumbled; his mouth muffled by the blanket under his.

“Yeah, but we can do more of this later. If you don’t get up soon, we won’t get to eat before the movie starts, and I like having dinner.” Louis pressed a kiss to the back of Alex’s left clothed shoulder, before moving off of him and back over to his side of the bed. Alex groaned again, but slowly pushed himself up and then off the bed stretching his arms above his head.

“Alright you win, let’s go,” He said with yawning.

“Well, now I’m starting to get comfortable here,” Louis said lounging back with his hands behind his head on the pillow and his legs crossed. Alex just rolled his eyes, but smiled fondly, and threw a pillow at him.

***

An hour later they were finally leaving the hotel and heading to a little Italian restaurant a few blocks away. Louis had asked Alex what his favorite restaurant was insisting they had to go. Alex then insisted that it was a nice place and they both had to dress nicer. Louis thankfully knew the lab had packed him a nicer outfit but assumed Alex hadn’t packed one in hurried packing. Louis insisted what they had on looked fine and he eventually gave in.

Alex wore a light blue short-sleeve button-down shirt tucked into his dark wash cuffed jeans. His brown hair was starting to curl at the ends, and he let it run wild as the gel one put in his hair was no longer holding. His hair now covering his forehead. Louis wore a black and white checkered button-down shirt that had a pocket over his right pec. He continued styling his hair back, so it stayed out of his eyes with the wind. While Louis knew it wasn’t his normal fashion, he had to admit they both looked great.

They arrived at the restaurant around seven-thirty. The restaurant was decently crowded, but they were able to get a table without a wait. They were seated in a booth towards the back. People sat around their table though, so they had to be careful what they said.

“So, what brings you to Chicago, from St. Louis anyways? Alex asked after the server ran off with their drink orders.

“The Beatles concert mainly,” Louis answered as honestly as he could.

“You were at the concert? So was I! That makes sense why you saw me, and Roland turns into the alley.”

“So, Roland was the guy you were at the concert with? I have a confession to make. I saw you at the concert, you were a few rows behind me, and I saw you and the guy you were with dancing. When I saw you, guys walking outside after the concert, and turn into the alley, I was curious what you two were doing so I followed you, and that’s how I ended up at the club.”

“I feel like I should be creeped out by that, but I know you meant no harm. Roland was the guy I went to the concert and club with. I met him at the book store I work at. His law firm is right next store, so he frequently comes by the shop on his lunch break.” Alex leaned in and lowered his voice before continuing. “As we got to know each other better we learned we both liked the same sex. He was the one who first told me about the club, the original club that got busted. He’s well connected with the underground gay community in this city and is slowly introducing me to them.”

He leaned back when the waitress returned with their drinks. Alex had ordered a glass of merlot and Louis ordered a coke. Alex took a sip of his wine then leaned back in. “Roland liked the Beatles music a lot but didn’t want to look out of place being a forty-something-year-old man there by himself so he asked if I would accompany him. That way I looked like his son. Of course, I graciously accepted, because I loved the Beatles, and he paid for the tickets. I was surprised he was able to get them in the first place.”

He paused and took another sip before continuing. This time he gazed down into the dark red liquid, his fingers dancing and tracing patterns over the glass. Louis sat and gave Alex his undivided attention as he sipped on his coke, with his menu splayed open in front of him.

“Roland’s become one of my closest friends this past year. I told my old best friend, who I trusted, my secret. I thought he would be understanding, seeing as he’s secretly dating a black gal. I was very wrong though. He didn’t want anything to do with me after that and called me a whole bunch of slurs. It’s easier when you have friends like you. Roland gets it because he knows. Often times we’ll drink at the club a few nights a week, where we know it’s safe to talk freely, and not get busted.” Alex sat back indicating he was done talking. As he did so the waiter came over to take their dinner orders and take their menus out of the way.

Louis put his elbows on the table and Alex leaned in again, back in the position they were in previously. “Roland sounds like a good guy, I’d love to meet him sometime.” Louis knew this wasn’t really a possibility with his leaving tomorrow, but it seemed like the right thing to say. “As for your old friend, I’m sorry there are people in this world who can’t understand and accept us. I think maybe one day far in the future things will be better though.”

Alex snorted. “That must be really far into the future, with the way things are now.” Louis wanted to roll his eyes but stopped himself.

“It might be decades from now, but I think maybe one day gays will have the right to marry.” Louis knew he should stop himself. He couldn’t reveal information and give away himself or mess up the timeline. He just wanted to instill some hope into Alex, that one day it won’t be this bad. He knew it was decades from now, but he hoped Alex lived to see the day gays got the right to marry, or at least to the point where it was no longer considered illegal and people were open about it.

Alex took a bigger swig from his drink. “Well I hope you’re right Lou, but as of right now that just sounds like a fantasy.”

Their food came out looking and smelling delicious and they both dug in. Louis hoped this place still existed a hundred years from now because it was the best pasta he had ever had in his life. He understood now why it was Alex’s favorite place. For the rest of the meal, they made small dinner talk, that didn’t involve leaning in anymore.

Louis insisted on paying the check since, after all, it was Alex’s birthday celebration dinner. Alex rolled his eyes and called him a dork, but was appreciative of the gesture. They left shortly after, driving quickly to get to the nearest drive-in. Louis was thankful for Alex spouting off directions. Without having a GPS, he couldn’t very well read the map and drive at the same time without probably causing a bad accident.

The drive-in wasn’t too crowded given it was a Tuesday night, so they were able to get a good spot to watch the movie. Alex got them popcorn and each a coke from the concession stand. Even in the dark in the car, they still couldn’t act like a couple on a date, in fear of people passing by.

They sat a foot between them, with their fingers occasionally brushing against each other when they both reached for popcorn at the same time. After about the fifth time their fingers brushed together, Louis hooked his index finger with Alex’s in the popcorn. It was discrete enough, that if anyone walked by them, they could quickly act like they were just reaching for the popcorn. Louis was pretty proud of his clever idea and smirked to himself as he turned his attention back to the movie. Occasionally, he’d feel Alex’s thumb rub against their connected fingers, and electricity ran through Louis’s arm and up to his spine.

Louis could barely concentrate on the rest of the movie. All he could concentrate on was Alex’s presence and where their skin touched. By the end of the movie Louis was completely lost on the storyline and gave up paying attention. They unhooked their fingers and both of them finished off the rest of the popcorn before they left. Louis severely had to use the bathroom, but held it half the movie, in fear of unhooking their fingers and not being able to re-hook them when he got back. After they finished the popcorn, he offered to throw it away as he rushed his way to the bathrooms.

The drive back was easy, with Alex giving directions again. Louis had lived in future Chicago all his life but was always in awe at the beauty of the various lights from the buildings that made up the skyline. They had their windows rolled down, and the smell of exhaust and various restaurants filled the air and plagued their noses.

They walked up the stairs to their room and shutting and locking the door behind them. Once the lock clicked the air seemed to constrict with tension, as they both stood awkwardly by the door. Alex made the first move and walked toward Louis, capturing his lips in a kiss. He walked them backward, until Louis’s back was against the wall, as Alex kissed down his jaw and neck.

Louis was a panting mess as Alex continued to kiss all the right places. After Alex returned his lips to Louis’s, Louis decided to take charge and picked Alex up by his thighs and wrapped his legs around his waist. Alex’s shirt was pushed up exposing his abs. Louis walked them over to his bed and dropped him on the mattress. He undid the buttons of his pants exposing his briefs. Alex sat up and unbuttoned Louis’s shirt, so they were both left half-naked.

They continued kissing and groping until eventually, they were both completely naked. Louis hoped he could save the image of Alex naked, underneath him saved in his mind for the rest of his life. The warm tight heat of prepping him with his fingers, before lubing himself up and pushing into Alex gently. He waited for him to adjust before angling just right and setting a brutal pace, hitting his prostate his every thrust. With wandering hands and mouths, they both came with explicit moans. Afterward, they laid close together in each other's arms, as they caught their breaths. Louis couldn’t think of a better way to spend their last night.

“Do you work tomorrow?” Louis mumbled into Alex’s hair after both their breathing had evened out.

“Nope, I have the day off why?”

“I have tickets to the Colt .45’s vs. Cubs game. Come with me?” Louis actually only had one ticket, but he was hoping he could buy another one for Alex at the gate.

“That sounds nice. I love a good baseball game.” Alex said snuggling closer to Louis’s front as Louis spooned his.

“It’s tomorrow at noon. We can buy your ticket at the gate.” Alex nodded and yawned.

They both shut their eyes and fell asleep soon after in each other. Louis decided if this was what 1964 was like, he never wanted to leave. 


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, they woke up with their sweaty bodies tangled together. The sun streamed in bright from the curtains, warming up the room. Louis woke up first and glanced over at the clock. They had slept past nine, and they had to get up and get ready for the game soon or they would be late. He decided to wake Alex up by gently placing kisses all over his exposed skin. They started off small and soft and continued to become sloppier and involve more sucking, till Alex was awake and let out a tiny moan. Louis pulled back and smirked.

“It’s about time you woke up.”

“Well excuse me for needing my beauty sleep,” Alex said rolling away from Louis and out of bed. “Come on we have to go shower.” Louis huffed out a breath of exaggerated annoyance and got up and followed him to the bathroom. They showered together only getting distracted once while helping each other rinse off.

They both dressed in khakis and button-downs for the game. It was cooler that morning so they both wore jackets over their shirts They got pastries and coffee from a bakery down the street, before driving up to the northern part of the city to Wrigley Field.

When they arrived, Louis parked the time machine several blocks away, and they walked to the big gates of the stadium. When they were in the street walking, Louis continued to have the urge to hold Alex’s hand, but he knew he couldn’t. It continually frustrated him more, how things were at this time. He was born into a time of more acceptance for race and sexual orientation, and he’s realized after being in 1964, that he’s taken it for granted.

They kept a reasonable distance between them and walked up to the ticket window, to purchase Alex a ticket. Thankfully, because it was a Wednesday day game, there were still plenty of seats left. Louis paid for the ticket since he invited Alex after all, and they walked into the stadium. Alex’s ticket was in the same section as Louis’s, but many rows back. They hoped that once people left, or didn’t show up, they could move to two open seats together.

Louis kept reminding himself that his mission came first, and it was extremely important he got this footage. He had studied the scorecards and knew the plays for this game. However, it was his job to get the whole game, and not just highlights. Louis couldn’t tell Alex this, which Louis feared would cause an issue when Louis wouldn’t be conversing or making eye contact with him during the game. Instead, he would be staring out at the field, from the start of the game till the end. He knew it was a high scoring game of 3 to 6 with multiple runs in the seventh inning. He just hoped that Alex really enjoyed baseball and got engrossed in the game.

They went to their respective seats and waited for the start of the game. Louis was only a few rows from the field behind home plate. It was the best seat he had ever had to a baseball game. It must be the perks of having his job, he smirked to himself. The game started, and the first two innings were pretty uneventful with no runs scored. Louis bought some popcorn and a bottle of coke from a worker walking down the aisles of the sections.

The third and fourth inning each only had one run scored, with the Cubs winning. After the fourth inning, the two seats in front of Louis had remained vacant through the game so far. He quickly turned around and waved Alex down, and they moved into the seats. Louis’s worries were quickly washed away when the fifth inning began, and Alex got more into the game than Louis. Alex was shouting various things throughout about various plays and calls made. Some people, especially other women, around them looked at him appalled. Alex wasn’t acting very gentlemen like at the game, but he didn’t seem to care. Louis found it amusing and a turn-on. In the future, men and women acted the same at baseball games and wore what they wanted. Louis thought it was ridiculous, the divide and mentality that swirled around the classes and sexes here, but he kept his mouth shut because voicing his opinion wasn’t worth it. He thought about if he had come to this game with Peyton, how people would react, given that Peyton is biracial.

The fifth inning brought no runs, and the sixth brought one, as the seventh inning was approaching. Louis knew each team scored three runs each in the seventh inning, making it the last of the scoring for the rest of the game. Alex had gotten himself some peanuts and was making a mess of shells, down by his feet. Louis kept discreetly zooming in and out on his glasses when a play was made on the field.

Between the sixth and seventh inning, Louis stole a glance to his right, to see Alex filling in a scorecard that he had gotten when Louis wasn’t looking. Alex’s face was shadowed by a baseball cap he purchased, so he couldn’t see Louis looking at his. Louis was happy he was sitting with Alex for most of the game, instead of some businessmen, or a couple who watched the game, but didn’t enjoy it as much as Alex and he did. 

The seventh inning began, and Louis’s attention was fully on the game. As every run was hit, Louis could hear Alex cheering and shouting next to him, and quickly scribbling the run onto his scorecard. Louis couldn’t help but laugh, when Alex jumped up and down with excitement, looking like a little child.

Deep into the seventh, the Cubs were up to bat. Louis watched as the player swung the bat, and a fly ball flew behind him and in the stands, coming toward them. Louis didn’t think about it; he just reached his hands up and jumped a little bit to grab the ball and secure it in both his hands. The people around them clapped and cheered for them. Louis’s hands stung from the impact of the ball, but he tried to ignore it as he gave the ball to Alex.

“Here, why don’t you have this to go along with your scorecard?”

“What? I can’t take that! Don’t you want it to remember the game?” Alex asked, readjusting his hat so he could look at Louis better. Louis wanted to tell him, he would already be able to remember the game perfectly, because he was recording it on his glasses, but he couldn’t.

“Really, I want you to have it. Something to remember me by when I have to go back to St. Louis.” It was the first time Louis brought up the impending event of his departure. A hint of sadness danced along Alex’s features, but he quickly recollected himself and took the ball with a smile and a small thank you.

Louis quickly turned his attention back to the game, knowing he already had missed the batter getting out. He thought back to the scorecard he had studied and training and remembered this batter striking out, but never hitting a foul ball. It was even more convenient that the foul ball happened to come right towards him and Alex. Louis knew time could be easily changed, and that one foul ball wasn’t going to change the game, considering the player still struck out. It did make him wonder again, how much the timeline might be getting messed up, with him being around Alex. Louis was almost positive now that there would be repercussions when he got back to the lab. He still hadn’t told Alex that he was supposed to be leaving right after the game and dreaded even thinking about it.

He sat and recorded the rest of the game, even though it was uneventful, and the Cubs had their winning 3-run lead over the Colt .45’s. As the game moved closer and closer to ending, Louis grew more and more anxious. He was afraid to go back to the lab and be scolded, but he was also afraid of leaving Alex and what would happen to him after he left. He didn’t know what the future had in store for Alex, and the unknowing haunted him.

As the game ended, Louis turned the recording off on his glasses and stood up to stretch. Alex was busy filling in the last at-bat on his scorecard, then he took the fall ball that he had sitting in his lap and joined Louis standing. He folded the scorecard and placed it in his pocket, then held on tightly to the foul ball with both his hands. They made their way with the crowd of people back out the gates and onto the sidewalk, outside the stadium. Louis was practically dragging his feet, as they walked down the street to where they parked the time machine. He knew he needed to tell Alex he had to leave and ask where he should drop him off at. He felt like a jerk for not bringing it up sooner, but it was never his intention to spend his four days in the past with Alex.

As they slowly reached the time machine, Louis stopped them and leaned against the time machine's trunk.

“Hey, before we start driving, I have to tell you something.” Louis’s voice sounded weak and he hated the way it sounded coming out of his mouth. Alex copied Louis’s pose and looked at Louis urging him to continue. “I have to go back home…tomorrow.” Louis blurted out. He didn’t even realize what he said till tomorrow clung in the air between them.

“Oh…I assumed you would be going home soon, but I didn’t know when. Okay well, when do you go home tomorrow?”

Louis tried to process everything and quickly tried to think of a way not to dig himself deeper into a hole. He knew he was going to be in huge trouble staying an extra day, but if he had already messed things up so far, what was one more day in the past. He knew everything he’d done so far had gone against his training. Thinking back, he doesn’t remember the exact moment he decided to go rogue on this mission. He knew for certain he would probably never be asked on another mission again, so why not enjoy this one.

“I’ll leave tomorrow morning. I’m sorry I didn’t bring it up sooner.”

“It’s okay, it wasn’t like having me around your whole trip was part of your plan.” Alex laughed. “So how do you want to spend your last night here in Chicago then?”

Louis thought about this for a moment, but then instantly knew the answer. “Let’s go back to the club tonight.” 

***

Alex said the club didn’t open up until eight that night, so they had some time to kill. They were both hungry after the game, so they drove to a drive-in restaurant and ate in the car. As they ate, Louis asked a question he wanted to know before he left.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but if you don’t mind me asking, where’s your mom?”

Alex leaned back in his seat, with his hamburger resting in his hand. “My mom died from cancer when I was three. She got sick not long after she had me. I don’t remember much about her or what she looked like from memory. I mostly just go off what my siblings have told me, and the picture of her we have framed on the wall in our sitting room.” Alex fell silent and took another bite of his burger.

“I’m sorry.” That was the only thing Louis could think to say.

“Tell me about your family,” Alex said casually, trying to change the subject.

“Well I have an older brother Liam, and my parents, who are divorced, and my step-dad Peyton.”

“Do you like your family?” Alex asked timidly.

“Of course. They aren’t perfect, and sometimes my parents tend to pick work over family, but I love them.”

A small part of Louis always wondered if his parents asked Liam and his to join TARC, just so they could meshwork and home life together. They each worked long hour days at the lab, and oftentimes wouldn’t get home till it was almost time for him and Liam to go to bed. Louis figured them joining TARC, was his parent’s way of a solution, but it never worked. During Louis’s training, he would usually only see his parents passing in the lab. However, now when they sat down for meals whether it be with his mom or dad, they wanted to talk about the lab and TARC because it was now something they had in common. A part of Louis resented his parents for this, and he knew Liam did too because they had expressed this to each other before in one of their late-night talks. Louis couldn’t explain this all to Alex, so he just switched topics altogether.

“So, did you enjoy the game? I didn’t realize you were such a big baseball fan.” 

Alex beamed at his with delight. “The game was fantastic! I had never been to one before. I usually just listen to them on the radio or sometimes watch them on the television when my father has it on.”

Louis almost choked on his food in shock. “That was your first baseball game?”

Alex laughed. “Yeah, could never afford to go before, and didn’t really have anyone to go with. Roland is more into Football. I can never thank you enough for taking me, and for the foul ball.” He held up the ball in his hand not holding his burger and looked at it with joy.

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I could catch a foul ball for you to remember your first game.” Louis said, popping a French fry in his mouth.

“I think I would have remembered my first game no matter what, foul ball or not. Also, I didn’t know you were such a big baseball fan either. You stare so intently at the field the whole time, sometimes I thought I had missed a play or two.” They both laughed and Louis tried to brush it off.

“What can I say? It was a fascinating game, and you never know when something good is going to happen.”

“Yeah, well you seemed pretty alert right before something happened. Your body would stiffen up and a look of deep concentration crossed your face.” Alex said, finishing off the fries he had.

“Were you watching me, and not the game?” Louis joked and Alex giggled and hit Louis on the shoulder.

“No, I definitely watched the game, but I knew when to really pay attention from watching you.”

Louis just shook his head amused, and not knowing how to respond to that. He ate the last bite of his burger, and soon they were heading back to the hotel.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *TRIGGER WARNING*
> 
> Graphic Violence and homophobic slurs in this chapter!!! If you feel uncomfortable reading it but want to know what happens so you can continue the story please inbox me.

When they got back to their room, they decided to freshen up a bit before they went out to the club. They brushed their teeth and fixed their hair. They both changed into cuffed jeans and T-shirts with leather jackets over them. They left for the club around eight-thirty, hoping a decent number of people would already be there.

Louis parked the time machine in the same place he had parked for the concert a few days back, and they walked the few blocks to the club’s alleyway. For a Wednesday night, there were a fair amount of people out walking the streets. Louis and Alex were careful not to draw attention as they slipped into the alleyway and up to the guy standing outside of the club a few days ago. The guy knew Alex by name and greeted him, then waved both of them in.

The club had a calmer atmosphere than it did on Saturday. It was still early in the night, and many patrons were still nursing their first drink. Many men and women were dressed in suits and dresses, Louis assumed they had come here straight from work. He hoped for his last night here, that later in the night dancing would again occur. Currently, the jukebox played a current popular song, but at a lower volume than before.

The minute they were inside, Alex grabbed Louis’s hand and intertwined their fingers. He led him towards a table in the middle between the bar and dance floor, where the man from the concert dancing, Roland, sat.

“Alex!” Roland exclaimed and stood up and hugged him. “And who’s this beautiful thing you brought here?” Louis blushed, while Alex re-connected their hands.

“This here is Louis. I met him a few days ago after the concert here. I think you were too far gone already to notice.” Alex joked and the man put on a face of mock offense. “This is his last night in town, so it has to be memorable.”

“Lovely to meet you, Louis, I’m sure Alex’s told you, I’m Roland.” The man said, extending his hand. Louis took it, and then shook hands for a brief moment before he exclaimed “First round's on me boys, go tell Ester to put it on my tab.” He retook his seat, and Alex pulled Louis towards the bar.

“Quick, before he changes his mind.” He said loud enough for Roland to hear.

They went up to the bar where Ester was drying glasses with a towel. 

“What are we having tonight?” She asked unamused.

“A Manhattan and…”

“A Blue Hawaiian” Louis supplied. Ester nodded and went about making the drinks. More people were slowly trickling into the bar, and it was becoming louder with conversation and laughter floating through the air.

Ester made the drinks quickly and set them both down on the counter.

“That will be fifty cents each.”

“Charge it to Roland’s tab, and this is for you.” Alex tipped Ester a quarter, then grabbed his drink and Louis’s hand again.

They made their way back to the table, where Roland was sipping on scotch. They sat around the table downing their drinks and laughing, making small talk. Louis decided he really liked Roland. He reminded him a little of what Alex might be like older. He could see why they were friends. They were both witty and liked to say what’s on their minds.

An hour later, Louis was on his third drink and his head was starting to feel fuzzy. Someone had turned the jukebox up, and a small group of people made their way to the dance floor.

Roland stood up from his seat, fourth drink in hand. “Come on boys, we must dance!” He said as he swayed his hips from side to side. Alex and Louis clumsily stood up, and slowly made their way over to the dance floor. They danced around in a circle for a while, before Roland asked another man, alone at the bar for a dance. The man agreed and they went off and danced on their own.

Louis began to feel like tonight was a better version of the first time he was here. Now it was okay to dance with Alex and hold his hand, and he no longer felt timid. And now he knew Ester and Roland by name, who was his main supply of alcohol throughout the night. Roland kept insisting both the boys charge their drinks to his tab. He didn’t seem worried about the bill at all. Alex mentioned at one point that he was a prominent lawyer, who lived alone with his dog and made more than enough to live a comfortable lifestyle.

Alex and Louis danced and swayed on the dance floor. They would finish a drink and immediately go get another one. They each had to make a few trips to the bathroom because they were drinking so much. By eleven-thirty, they had to hold on to each other, to make sure the other one didn’t fall over. Louis knew he shouldn’t have drunk this much with leaving tomorrow, but currently that was the farthest thing from his mind.

Alex and Louis kissed sloppily on the dance floor for a while, until Roland and the guy he was dancing with came over to them. Then the four of them started dancing in a circle again and traded around dancing partners. They were all equally drunk and laughing at nothing.

Soon the clock on the wall by the bar, said midnight and Louis felt the urge to leave. He knew he couldn’t drive, but they could take a cab or something. He just knew, he needed to get home and sleep this off before he went back to the future. He tried to express these thoughts to Alex, but he couldn’t hear him over the music and conversation in the club. Louis took his hand and led him to the exit. Alex and Louis both stumbled and swayed as they walked, and Alex fell over once on the way to the door.

When they walked outside, the cool breeze met their sweaty bodies with relief. The guy who stood outside the club was no longer there, instead, he was inside having a drink of his own. Louis walked a few steps then began to fall towards the brick wall to his left, using his hands to steady himself. He continued walking, using the wall as support. He made it halfway down the alley before he stopped and waited for Alex to catch up. Alex stumbled behind him, mimicking Louis’s actions of keeping one hand on the wall, so he didn’t fall.

When Alex reached Louis, he cheered and bumped his body against Louis, unintentionally pushing him against the brick wall. Alex crowded into Louis’s space and began kissing him against the wall. Both of them were too drunk to remember they couldn’t do that in public. They kissed lightly and sloppy at first before Alex slipped his tongue in Louis’s mouth, and the kiss deepened. They roamed over each other's clothes, and small moans escaped their mouths.

They both had their eyes closed as they kissed and didn’t see the group of men walk down the alleyway. Louis just remembered Alex getting violently ripped from his arms, and quickly jumped by three guys. The other two held Louis against the wall, preventing him from moving. The other men had Alex pinned to the ground.

“Well, would you looky here fellas? We have ourselves a bunch of queers.” One of the men by Alex said moving between him and Louis. He eyed them like they were meat and he was the lion assessing how he was going to catch his prey. “Guys like you shouldn’t exist.” He said pointing to Alex then gesturing to the other men holding his and Alex down. “But I bet I can change your mind and make your little self like girls again.” He got close to Louis and rubbed the back of his hand down his cheek.

Louis felt like he had completely sobered up and was now in fight or flight mode. He spat in the man's face and tried with all his strength to wiggle out of the grips of the men holding him down.

The man wiped his face, and a flash of anger appeared in his eyes. “You shouldn’t have done that boy, and you’ll regret it.” He turned around to the two men holding Alex. “Kill his, then we’ll pass this one around.” He gestured back to Louis.

Louis’s blood ran ice cold at those words. The men nodded their heads, and Louis made eye contact with Alex, who looked at Louis with pure fear. The eye contact was broken when one of the guys holding Alex down punched him in the face. He began punching him relentlessly, while the other guy stood up and began kicking Alex in the ribs and stomach at full force.

The cries and sounds of crunching as bones broke, made Louis nauseous. Tears were streaming down his face as he screamed at the men to stop before one of the men quickly put something in his mouth to gag him. Alex’s face became a bloody mess, as he fell unconscious and unable to fight the men off. Louis looked on in horror, they were in a dark alley where no one could see them, and no one came running when they heard him scream.

The man punching Alex gave him a few more punches before he pulled back and took the palm of his hand and covered Alex’s nose and mouth. Louis fought and tried to scream, he couldn’t see straight because a flood of tears rushed down his face, and he felt a strong urge to vomit as the strong taste of metallic danced along his tongue. He no longer felt drunk at all, but stone-cold sober.

Louis watched as Alex’s face turned purple and soon his barely rising chest stopped moving altogether. The man pulled his hand back and stood up with the man who had been kicking him. The leader of the group looked at Alex’s body pleased, then turned to Louis.

“Well now that, that bitch is dead, time to make this one not a fag.” He began to get closer wiping the blood off his knuckles onto his shirt. The other men crowded in on Louis on all sides.

Louis started to give up. He was outnumbered, Alex was dead, and he no longer wanted to fight anymore. He just wanted to slip into unconsciousness. There was black already at the edges of his mind slowly closing in, and he wanted to embrace the darkness and have it eaten his whole.

He felt rough hands rip his shirt open, while another pair of hands started punching him in the gut. The guy holding him against the wall to his right was holding his head up by the strands of his hair he fisted in his hand.

An array of emotions ran through him at the speed of life. He felt grief, fear, sadness, and anger. He felt defiled and degraded. He felt broken and worthless. He stopped fighting the men, there was no use. This was all his fault, all because of his fucking curiosity and need for adventure. He had one mission, he had trained months for, and he ended up messing it up in the first few hours. Instead of trying to make it right, he had an illegal love affair with a boy and ended up indirectly getting him killed.

Now he just prayed the darkness would come soon, so he wouldn’t have to watch as they took turns beating him. Then they would probably kill him, and he would die in a time period he wasn’t born in, and never belonged in. The authorities would try to find his family, to find that no one would claim his. He would be buried in some random place, next to random people. His actual family would have to go searching for his 100-year-old, overgrown grave in the future.

The men now took turns punching his face or gut, when a man’s booming voice screamed “Hey!” from the front of the alleyway. The two men who hurt Alex, now walked towards the figure, ready to get rid of him. Louis dangerously held onto a shred of hope that maybe the man would be able to save him.

The figure and the two men walked towards each other in the alleyway, and as soon as they were in close enough distance, the figure took something out of his pocket and stung the two men. Both men fell to the ground unconscious, and the man ran full speed toward the other three men around Louis. As soon as the man came closer, Louis could see it was his brother Liam, and the shred of hope grew. He also feared that Liam would get killed too. If the men didn’t kill him first, he would have to kill himself, if he watched Alex and Liam get killed right before his eyes.

The leader of the group turned and swung his fist at Liam. He quickly ducked out of the way and stung the leader in the side, with the device he held in his hand. The leader fell onto the concrete, and Liam kicked him full force in the face once and spat on him. Now the man to Louis’s right approached Liam as the man to his left was now the only one trying to restrain him. He saw his opportunity to escape and acted quickly. He quickly turned in the man’s grasp and kneed him in the groin. The man doubled over in pain and Louis quickly ran to Liam who had just knocked the other guy unconscious.

The five men laid around them unconscious, and Alex’s body laid still in a pool of blood against the wall opposite to where Louis had been held. Alex’s face was nearly unrecognizable, with both his eyes black and swollen. His lip was fat and busted, and his nose was crooked, and blood seeped out of it, into his open mouth. More blood was trickling out of the sides of his mouth and down his chin and neck.

Louis began walking towards Alex’s body, but was quickly yanked back and in the opposite direction by Liam who was now yelling at him.

“Come on we have to go now!” He shouted and pulled him down the alleyway to the street. Louis tried to resist at first, and protest, but it was no use. He was stronger than him especially in his beat-up state and determined to get them out of there.

A different time machine was parked on the street across from the alley, and Liam quickly led them to it. He didn’t let go of his arm until he was opening the passenger door and practically shoving him in. He shut the door the second he was fully in and ran around to the driver’s side. He turned the time machine on, punched in the correct time destination, and flipped a switch. He quickly skidded onto the road and gunned the car quickly approaching a car on the road in front of them. Right before they were about to hit the car at full force, their surroundings changed, and they were on their way back to 2064.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning for discussion of graphic violence and violence in a dream! Also sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger for a day!

It took Louis two minutes to calm his breathing and snap out of shock to speak. Then he started panicking.

“We have to go back in time. We have to go save Alex!” He started yelling at Liam.

“Are you crazy? We can’t go back, the timelines probably already messed up enough. We have to get back to the lab.”

“No! We have to go save Alex, it’s my fault that he’s dead and we have the ability to prevent everything that just happened back there.” Louis tried to grab the wheel to turn them around, making the time machine swerve a little. Liam quickly extended his arm and held Louis back, while he straightened them out.

“Are you fucking crazy? Do you want us to die too, in a completely different year? I know you're upset and were just the victim of a very traumatic situation and I’m sorry, but I’m not going to risk killing ourselves to go back.” He shouted, then his features went soft when he made eye contact with Louis and big tears fell down his face. He still held his glasses in his hand and set them in one of the cup holders between them.

“This is my fault, I did this. I should have never followed him after the concert. I’ve killed him.” Louis rocked back and forth in his seat, biting at his lip till he could taste blood.

“Louis, what happened on your mission. How did this all come to be?”

He took a deep breath. His body was trembling, and he tried to wipe away his tears with shaking hands. “After the concert, my first night in 1964, I saw people go into the alleyway…” Louis paused and a sob escaped his throat, as the last scene of the alleyway crossed his mind. A wave of nausea hit him all over again. He quickly bent over and put his head in his hands, between his legs, and sat like that till it passed. Liam didn’t say anything, he just rubbed soothing circles on his back, and told him to breathe. It was enough to calm his down. He sat back up in his seat and leaned his head against the headrest.

It was nice to have the time machine back to its futuristic self. Louis had missed the monitors and various future luxury’s that he had become accustomed to.

“Okay, we’ll skip the beginning part for now. But you need to tell me why you didn’t come back when you were supposed to. Trust me, if you tell me now, I can help you explain to everyone at the lab when you get taken into questioning.”

“Taken into questioning?” Louis asked, a whole new wave of panic washing over him.

“When we get back, you’ll be questioned on why what happened, and why you didn’t come back. They’ll want to know every detail.”

“Wait what about the other time machine? It’s just sitting in a parking lot in 1964. How are we going to get it back?”

“I’m sure the lab will come up with a plan. Two people will probably go back to 1964 together, and one will drive it back to 2064.” Liam said as he pressed buttons on the monitors, going over all the stats.

“How much trouble am I in?” Louis asked quietly looking out the windshield ahead.

Liam sighed and turned the time machine to auto-drive before scooting his seat back and sliding his hands over his face.

“It all depends on what happened, and how much damage has been caused. I don’t think you’ll go to jail, but you most likely will be kicked out of TARC for good. Just tell me why you didn’t come back.” Liam tried again.

This time Louis gave in. “I became infatuated with a boy named Alex, and if I had more time with him, I probably would have fallen in love.” A new batch of tears started to flow down his face, and he no longer tried to wipe them away.

“But why? You knew you weren’t supposed to really talk, let alone get involved with anyone. How did this happen?” Liam was looking at Louis, pleading for answers.

Louis gulped and drew a deep breath. “The alley we were in, a little farther down there’s an underground LGBT bar.” In the future, they were usually not called gay bars. “I found it by accident when I was walking back to the time machine, from the Beatles concert. I met Alex that night at the bar and we got really drunk.”

After that Louis told Liam everything. He told him about Alex’s abusive father, and how he left, but he had to go back for him. He told him about the rest of the days up until the baseball game and all the places they visited.

“And your positive Alex didn’t suspect anything at all? I can’t believe you let him ride in the time machine, how stupid.” Liam shook his head. Louis couldn’t tell if he was angry, disappointed, or a perfect mixture of both. Either way, it made the knot in his stomach clench with anxiety.

“I swear, he didn’t find out anything. He just thought the time machine was a normal car, and I swear I never said something I wasn’t supposed to that would lead him to believe I was from the future. He didn’t know, and I don’t know why that even matters now, because he’s fucking dead and you won’t turn around and fix it.” Louis screamed the last part in pent up anger. Liam just gave him another few minutes to calm himself down again, before he continued. Louis knew he was going to use all the time he had with him, to get information no matter what. 

“Okay, but you were planning on coming back to 2064, right? Or did you think you’d just forget about us and live in 1964 with Alex?” Liam asked. Louis could tell Liam was trying to desperately understand what Louis was thinking throughout his mission. Louis wasn’t entirely sure himself, but if he had to guess it was probably one simple word, _Alex._

“I honestly did plan on coming back. I was going to come right back after the game, I had it planned in my mind. I never told Alex when I had to leave, and when we got back to the time machine, I was going to tell him I had to leave…, but I just couldn’t do it. I looked at him, and I just didn’t have the willpower to leave him, especially with his dad, and so suddenly. I told him I had to leave tomorrow, and I meant it. I was going to leave tomorrow morning, after one more night with him.”

“And so, then you went to the club?” Liam had gotten out his tablet, paper notebooks were a rarity in the future due to conservation efforts, and became typing notes furiously. Louis leaned over from his seat and could see he was mapping out a timeline, and then branching out notes from that.

“Yes, as one last hooray, we went back to the club. Alex wanted to introduce me to his friend Roland who was also at the concert.” Louis turned on his side in his seat and brought his hands up to his face, to use as a pillow for his bead. He stared at Liam as he continued to type things on his tablet and wait for him to ask his next question. Louis thought he could lead his interrogation; he would just answer what he asked and offer no further information outside of that.

“Right, so were you two heading to the club, or leaving the club when you were attacked?”

“We were leaving.”

“Okay so then explain what happened?” Liam persisted.

“Do we really have to do this right now?” Louis snapped.

“What part of ‘I’m trying to help you’ do you not understand? We only have roughly forty-five minutes before we’re back in the lab and you're being escorted away to the interrogation room with handcuffs. Do you understand that?”

“But I’ll tell them the exact same thing I’m telling you now, so why does it matter?” Louis was feeling increasingly tired and just wanted sleep to overtake him.

“Because they’re going to try to use your story against you, and if I know the full story, I can try to use it to help you.”

“Why does it seem like you’ve been through this before?” Louis said, now more alert.

Liam stopped his typing, sighed, and then continued again.

“We don’t have time to get into that right now, just let me help you.”

“Well obviously whatever you did, must not have been that bad if you got promoted to watching the timeline.” Louis countered matter-of-factly.

Liam set his tablet down on his lap and turned to face his. “You think watching the timeline and never getting to time travel was a promotion? I got demoted, but again we don’t have time for this.”

Louis held his hands up in surrender. “Fine but we're discussing this later.

“Fine. Now tell me what happened after you left the club.” It was not a question, but a demand. Louis could tell Liam was at the end of his rope, and they were running out of time before Liam would have to drive again.

Louis gave in. “We left the club fairly drunk and were walking…err stumbling down the alleyway. We let our guard down and began kissing against the wall.” Louis could hear Liam’s breath hitch at that, but he continued. “One minute we were kissing, and the next Alex is being pulled away from me and we’re being held down by those guys. The leader of the group said they were going to kill Alex and pass me around to beat. Those homophobic assholes did it all because they couldn’t handle two boys kissing each other.” Louis was clenching and unclenching his fists and began shouting the last part.

“Okay, okay calm down. What those assholes did was absolutely awful, and I wish they could be punished, and I’m really sorry about Alex. Please don’t rip my head off though, because you kind of have those crazy eyes going and I’m just trying to help.” Liam put up his hands in surrender. Louis just rolled his eyes but focused on schooling his face to something more neutral.

After that Liam left him alone for the rest of the ride. Louis shifted so his back was resting on the seat, and his head on the headrest. He folded his hands over his stomach, and closed his eyes, letting sleep finally take over.

***

Louis was back in 1964. He and Alex were now living in a house of their own. Alex was playing with their dog, while Louis was getting ready for work. Alex kissed Louis out the door, as the sun shined bright down onto their perfectly mowed lawn. Louis got into his car, which looked just like the time machine, and drove away.

His dream skipped ahead, and now he was pulling back into his driveway after a hard day of work. He reached the door and was greeted by Alex and their dog. Alex didn’t even wait till they were inside to kiss him and welcome him home. He pulled back smiling at Alex before he was roughly grabbed from behind and thrown onto the ground. His hands were being placed behind his back, and cold metal cuffs were being placed on them. Louis turned his head to see Alex being beaten up in the doorway of their home and he screamed at the top of his lungs. He kept screaming as a man got out a gun and shot Alex in the forehead, then turned the gun on him.

***

Louis woke up to Liam roughly shaking him awake and screaming his name.

“Louis, Louis you need to wake up. It was just a dream.” Louis sat straight up in his seat and quickly took in his surroundings. His throat felt raw, and he began to cough.

“You started screaming. I think you were having a bad dream.” Liam said, concerned.

“A terrible dream.” Louis managed through a fit of coughing. Liam handed him a water bottle and he graciously accepted it and gulped it down.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked.

“No.” He said simply, laying back down onto the seat, but refusing to close his eyes again.

“We’re about five minutes away from the lab,” Liam said quietly.

“Great, five minutes away from hell.”

“I promise you Louis it’ll be fine, we’ll get this figured out.”

“Hey, Liam?”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you,” Louis said sincerely. He knew Liam meant it when he said he was going to help him, and he knew he needed all the help he could get.

Time almost seemed to slow as the portal to the lab lay ahead in the distance, and quickly got closer. Liam gunned the time machine and the portal got bigger and bigger till; in the flash of an eye they were back in the lab. Or what used to be the lab. Louis looked around at the completely different lab, from its colors to its set up and then to Liam.

“I was only gone 5 minutes in 2064, how the hell did the lab change?”

“What are you talking about? The lab has always been this way?”

Then the doors to the time machine were being opened and people were pulling Louis and Liam out of their seats.

“Mr. Louis Tomlinson, you need to follow me.” A man said as Louis was already being pushed off towards an exit. He glanced back at Liam, who looked to be also getting taken into questioning. Something was very wrong he thought. Very very wrong.


	11. Chapter 11

They escorted him to a part of the lab he had never been before. A section of the lab he never even knew existed. There were plenty of places in the lab that were restricted from him, but something about this place seemed intimidating.

Louis hadn’t seen his parents in the lab when they got back and that scared him. What if he severely damaged the timeline and now his parents were gone? Louis felt fear rise from his stomach and into his throat like acid. The people escorting him weren’t scientists or engineers, they were police and security guards. Liam was right they were waiting for them to get back, and he had only been gone for a little over five minutes.

They lead him into a dimly lit room with a long rectangular table with chairs all around it. The walls were a dark green and the room was windowless. Louis was expecting a two-way mirror somewhere, but this wasn’t an interrogation room, this was a conference room. A woman guard who was holding onto his arm guided him toward the chair at the head of the table and commanded him to sit. He obeyed and pushed the chair forward up to the table, folding his hands together on the surface.

“Stay seated, they will be in with you shortly.” The woman commanded, and she and the other four guards left the room. Louis didn’t hear it but knew the door was locked from the outside. He knew trying to leave would be a wasted effort with more consequences on the horizon, and at this point, he was already in deep shit.

Louis peered down at his hands on the perfectly smudge less glass table they were resting on. The chair he sat in was a comfy office chair, and he felt for a moment like an official businessman ready to lead a meeting or give a presentation. Not like a criminal, ready to be questioned, and thrown in jail for his family to come to bail him out. He wondered how disappointed his parents were in him. They instilled so much faith in him and seemed so proud before he left. He wondered what their faces looked like as the minutes ticked by. He wondered when Liam decided he needed to come back, and why they chose him to do it over someone else. He had so many questions of his own, but he felt like all he would be doing is answering questions and not receiving answers.

The door behind him swung open, and in walked a group of four individuals. Two women, and two men, he had seen many times before in the lab. They were part of the council that worked below Administrator Bray. Two worked on the scientist side, and two worked on the engineering side and met frequently to discuss progress and future endeavors. They would meet daily if not multiple times a day with Administrator Bray to discuss things. While the four didn’t have as much power as Administrator Bray, they still held quite a lot and could easily make changes when it came to hiring and firing people.

The group was a diverse one with a Hispanic-American woman, an Asian-American man on the science side, and an African-American woman, and an Indian-American man on the engineering side. Louis had spoken to them before briefly when his parents had introduced them to him while he was around the lab for training. They had all been fairly nice and professional people, that seemed excited to have him part of the team. Now they sat at the four seats around him wearing hard, emotionless expressions. Louis gulped and sat up straighter in his chair.

The Asian-American man who sat closest to him on his right spoke up first.

“Louis Tomlinson, your mission was to go back to September 5th, 1964 till September 9th, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois and retrieve video footage from the Beatles concert and Colt’s .45 vs. Cubs game. Is this correct?”

“Yes sir.” Then he started looking around for his glasses before he remembered he had left them in the time machine in the lab and sighed with relief. They can at least have their footage and see he did actually follow through with his mission.

“Is something the matter Mr. Tomlinson?” The African-American women to his left asked, taking notice in his frantic searching.

“No, I just realized I didn’t have my glasses, with the footage on it. I left it in the time machine though, and it’s all there I swear.” Louis tried to defend himself, hoping he wasn’t making it worse. They had only asked him one basic question so far; they hadn’t even gotten to the thick of it.

“Yes, we’ll have someone retrieve the glasses, and we’ll take a look at the footage together in a little while. First, we need to go over some questions first about your mission.” The Asian-American spoke to his right again. “Let’s start off with an easy one. Walk us through what happened when you first got to 1964, up until the concert.”

“Oh, well not a lot actually. It was mainly just me waiting in line for hours with other people going to the concert.” The four of them began typing on their tablets, Louis figured they were probably writing and recording every word he said. There was probably a camera somewhere in the room where another person somewhere else was analyzing his every move, looking for a lie.

“And did you talk to anyone while you were in line?” The same man asked.

“One girl, who was in front of me in line very briefly, but I assure nothing that you would see as eventful happened till after the concert.” Louis wanted to speed this process up. He didn’t want to have to go through every grueling detail of the past five days when he could just get to the part, they all were looking for.

“Right, and what exactly do you believe is eventful then Mr. Tomlindon?” The Indian-American man spoke to his left, next to the African-American women.

“I went to the concert and got the footage you asked for. Everything was fine up until that point. After the concert is when I knew I originally messed up.”

“And how did you originally mess up?” The Indian-American man asked. All the council members stopped typing, and looked directly at him, waiting for his response.

“After the concert, I stumbled upon an underground LGBT bar in an alleyway, I got drunk, met a boy I saw at the concert, and I ended up going home with him that night.”

Each member of the council had varying facial expressions, from cringing, to surprise, to horror, and disbelief.

“So, you found an underground LGBT bar, in 1964? And you went home with a boy from the concert and I assume had sexual relations with him?” The Asian-American man clarified. Louis could see sweat beginning to form on his brow. Louis felt bad for these people. They seem more stressed out than angry and it was all because of him.

“Yes, then I tried to leave, but I couldn’t leave him, and basically we had a five-day love affair. And yes, I didn’t go home when I was supposed to, but I swear I was going to go home the next morning.”

“Wait a minute! We’re going to need you to explain the full story to us.” The African-American spoke and the other three nodded their heads in agreement.

Louis sighed, but he finally gave in and told them everything in detail. It took what felt like forever because they kept interrupting him with more prying questions. Louis knew this was how it would go, but he was hoping just maybe there was some way to bypass it. There was not.

He made it all the way up to when they were leaving the club, and then he stopped. He didn’t want to go on. His heartfelt emptiness; he didn’t want to have to live through again what was never supposed to happen.

The Hispanic-American women spoke. “Louis will you please continue, with what happened after you left the club. It’s very important we know this information.”

A woman in a lab coat walked in with Louis’s glasses and handed them to the African-American women, who set them down in front of him and thanked the women. No one spoke until the woman left and the door was completely shut.

Louis took a shaky breath and broke the silence. “Alex and I, drunk made the stupid mistake of kissing and this group of guys passing saw us and attacked. They killed Alex, and someone needs to go back and save his.”

“Wait Alex died?” The Indian-American man exclaimed shocked and horrified.

“Wait you didn’t know that?” Louis looked taken back and the surprise seeped into his voice.

“No, we had no idea someone had died! This is way worse than we thought!” The Asian-American man said frazzled. Now beads of sweat pooled at his forehead and he kept pulling at the tie around his neck like it was choking him. The whole council looked anxious and were looking at one another in panic.

“Hold on, if you didn’t know Alex died then how did you know to send Liam back for me?” Louis felt as confused as them, and the air in the room felt like there was a poisonous gas seeping in and slowly constricting everyone.

“First off, we did not send Liam back, and second, we knew the exact time the game ended and had a window of when you should be back. When that window closed, everyone in the lab assumed something was wrong. However, since then it seems everything has turned into mass chaos.” The Hispanic-American women spoke.

Louis felt his head spinning. “So why did Liam go back to get me then?”

“Sorry, but we don’t have time to answer those questions now. You need to tell us what happened in that alleyway, and how Alex was killed. Also, we need Alex’s full name, but the fact that nothing went off on the timeline station is incredible. Perhaps, he never had kids and his early death never affected the timeline.” The African-American women spoke.

“Or perhaps he was meant to have an early death.” The Indian-American man chimed in.

“It’s very possible he never married or had kids if he was living a gay lifestyle back in 1964.” The Hispanic-women added in.

Louis was even more confused. The lab was different so something must have changed. How do these people not see it? Before he could voice this the Asian-American man next to him reached for the glasses across from him on the table. “Okay, well those are all very possible scenarios everyone, and hopefully that was the case. We still need Louis to explain in detail the extent of what happened. Then we’re going to review the footage on these glasses together.”

Louis wanted to cry tears of frustration, but he held them back. He recalled the horrifying events that took place not long ago in as much horrific detail as he could muster. These people had to go bring Alex back. They couldn’t just write his death off, because it supposedly didn’t affect the timeline. He may not have ever reproduced, but he could have done something else that was significant. By the time he was done talking, his body was shaking all over, and his voice was trembling. The council members looked sympathetic as they typed up their notes.

“Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson, for sharing your troubling story with us. We appreciate your cooperation. Now let’s take a look at this footage.” The Asian-American man said, as he removed a small chip from the glasses and placed it inside his tablet. Then he projected his tablet onto the wall in front of him, as the two members of the council across from him moved to the side.

The footage began playing, starting with the first opening act for the Beatles. Louis was forced to sit through all of it, as the council stared intently at the screen, analyzing everything. Louis was dreading the third act because he knew what was coming.

As they made it through the first two acts, and the third began to play, Louis slouched down in his chair. He thought about turning away, but a part of him couldn’t tear his eyes away from the screen. Finally, the part he was waiting for came. The screen panned left, as the camera watched Alex and Roland dancing in the crowd. The camera zoomed in and Louis felt his heart clench in his chest. The video paused on Alex and Roland dancing and the council turned back towards the Asian-American man who stopped it.

“Do you know the two dancing in this video? Or did you just capture them dancing for fun?” He asked.

Instead of answering, Louis began sobbing. He didn’t want to cry anymore, but his eyes didn’t get the message. He balled his eyes out, as someone handed him a box of tissues, and the council members looked around at each other not knowing what to do.

He finally calmed down a few minutes later. He wiped his eyes and blew his nose, before throwing his pile of tissues away in the small wastebasket behind him. He sat back down and sat up tall in his chair again, trying to pretend that nothing had happened. The projection was still frozen on Alex and Roland and Louis tried to remember to breathe. It was just temporary he wasn’t really dead. He can be saved; they have the power to save him. He repeated in his head. The African-American woman to his left, cleared her throat, gaining Louis’s attention.

“Louis, we’ll ask again. Do you know who those people are?”

“Yes…It’s Alex and Roland.” He said quietly. His voice was raspy from crying. The council made their notes, and Louis could tell screenshots were taken of the frozen screen, probably to be analyzed.

The video began playing again and Louis was forced to sit through all of the concerts again. Any other time he would have enjoyed seeing the footage he shot and would be grateful for getting to see it. Now he wanted nothing more than to be done with this and escape this room. He wanted to go save Alex immediately or go insure someone from the lab was going to go save him. The council was preventing him from doing that, and it was making him more irritated by the second.

The concert footage finally ended, and then the baseball game video began to play. Louis knew that would take a few more hours to get through. Thankfully the Asian-American man stopped the video and turned to him.

“Well I think we can all agree we need a break, so we’ll review this video later. Also, I know Administrator Bray wants to have a word with you.”

“We should send this footage over to President Hall’s office.” The Indian-American man said.

“Wait, like the president of the United States?” Louis asked.

“Yes, we are a part of the government and President Hall likes to see new footage when it comes in.” The Hispanic women said.

“But…There is no president Hall? The president of the United States is Maria Flores?”

“What are you talking about? We’ve never had a President Flores before.” The Asian-American man responded as all the council members got up from their seats to leave. “Stay seated, the Administrator will be in to see you shortly.”

All the council members walked out the door, leaving Louis confused and panicked. Things were not like how they were before he went back in time, and no one seems to remember that things have changed. That means there is no such thing as timeline monitoring if the changes are like nothing ever happened, and they don’t remember them. Louis realized he was utterly screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes this is about the Mandela Effect lol also get ready to meet Administrator Bray


	12. Chapter 12

Louis sat in the same chair, staring at the same spot on the wall for twenty minutes before a woman came in with a bottle of water and a sandwich. Louis didn’t feel like eating at all, but he picked at the sandwich anyway, because he didn’t know what else to do.

It was half an hour later when Administrator Bray walked in, waking Louis from his restless nap in the chair. The Administrator nodded his way before quickly taking a seat. He looked rather calm and put together, instead of frazzled and stressed as Louis had assumed. He figured the council went to meet with him after their meeting with him ended. He thought they probably filled him in on everything they learned, and how the timeline seems unaltered, which Louis knew wasn’t the truth.

“Louis.” The administrator said, bowing his head towards him, before scrolling through the tablet he had in front of him. “Well Louis, it looks like you’ve been quite busy. My council members have just sent me all their notes.”

“I have to admit sir, I thought they were briefing you on our meeting before you arrived.”

The administrator waved him off. “While that would be ideal Mr. Tomlinson, I had prior engagements I had to attend to in my office, before dealing with your little endeavors.” He said with spite.

Louis felt himself shrink back in his chair at his words. “I apologize, sir, for my actions, and I take full responsibility for them. I understand if I am dismissed from TARC sir.” He said quietly trying to maintain eye contact with him, and not falter under his glare.

“Yes, well disciplinary actions will be discussed later. For now, let’s discuss what you’ve gotten yourself into.” Louis watched as he read through all the notes nodding and making noises of disapproval from the back of his throat. Louis didn’t say anything, he just waited until he addressed him again. “So, you had a love affair with a man in a time when it was illegal, and then watched him die. That would be a problem, Mr. Tomlinson. According to these notes, you got lucky, and it appears to have not affected the timeline though, so your punishment may not be as severe.”

“See sir, I think that’s where there’s been a mistake the timeline has changed, but I don’t think anyone has realized it has.” Louis tried to get his point across, but he felt like a mouse sitting next to a wolf. He felt it was only a matter of time before he was eaten alive.

“Louis, I hope you’re not suggesting that our state-of-the-art timeline detection system, built by the country's best scientists and engineers, isn’t working. It would have detected the death of Alex…” He glanced back down at his notes. “Hudson caused any major damage to the timeline.”

“No sir, with all due respect, I think you're wrong. Not only is the laboratory different from when I first left, but the President of the United States has also changed.” Louis tried to emphasize.

“President Flo…Hall, was the president before you left Louis, nothing has changed.” Administrator Bray said, trying to cover his mistake with a cough, but Louis heard it.

“You were going to say, Flores, as in President Flores the woman who was president when I left.”

“No, no you must have heard me wrong I said, Hall.” He tried to brush it off, but Louis could see his tough-guy façade vanishing.

Louis pushed himself off the chair with the table, and the chair went flying backward behind him. He got into the administrator's face and pointed his finger. “Listen I’ve had a shitty long-ass day, and I’m tired of playing games. I know, you know the timeline has changed unlike everyone else, who seems clueless. Tell me what you know.”

He pushed himself up too, and they had a stare-off before he broke. “Fine, I might as well tell you, it’s not like you can do anything about it anyway.” He began pacing around the room. Louis still glared daggers at him, but he picked up his chair and sat back down.

“What is that supposed to mean? There’s a boy’s life at stake here. Tell me what you know.” Louis urged.

“See that’s just the thing, Louis, by having Alex gets killed, it actually helped make the timeline better. See Alex Hudson, eventually had a child. That child later had children of his own, and one of those kids happened to become President Altera. He was president when you were just a baby.” Administrator Bray kept pacing the room, occasionally looking back at him.

Louis had felt stunned. He didn’t know Alex’s last name in the past, and even if he had, what were the chances of his future granddaughter becoming president. Administrator Bray was right, he was only a baby when President Altera was in office, but he had read about him in history books. He had been a big supporter of equal rights for all and was an overall well-liked president.

The Administrator continued. “Well everyone thought he was a great choice, with him no longer existing, a new much better president took his place. He gave more funding to our program, and he helped our economy. Therefore, I have no interest in going back and fixing your little mistake. I should actually be thanking you, because of your stupidity you actually made things better. I mean just look around at this place. Take a look at how much better the lab looks, and how much more equipment we have thanks to an influx in funding.”

Louis felt his mouth open and close like a fish gasping for water. “What…you can be serious. You’re not going to fix this, or let me fix this all because of more funding?” He screamed the last part, getting worked up again.

“Oh, now don’t say it like that. Of course, it’s not just about the money. While you were being interviewed by my council, I took the liberty of reading all about our little presidential change. I truly think President Williams was more suited for our county.”

“Okay so if there was a presidential change eighteen years in the past, then why is the current president different?” Louis was so lost and confused, he just wanted to lay down for a while.

“In little words, it was a butterfly effect. With the presidential change in the past, political issues and different laws were made or changed. Therefore, causing a change now in presidents. President Hall seems like a lovely president though. So, again no need to go back and fix the timeline, when it’s been fixed for the better.” He looked bored and unamused now and stopped pacing by the chair he was sitting in before.

“So, why are you and I the only ones who remember these changes? Why does your council not remember?”

“Let me counter your question, with a question of my own. Do you know what a memory chip is Louis?” The administrator finally took a seat again, and Louis noticed his lack of pacing made him a little less anxious.

“I know it’s something the lab’s been working on. I’ve heard my mom talk about it before, but I don’t really know what it is.”

“A memory chip is a small device that can be inserted into your neck, just like you would insert a flash drive into a tablet. These memory chips can store your thoughts and memories, you choose to put on it. The lab has also figured out a way to upload pre-recorded footage onto these memory clips, to create a new way of viewing content. That footage you got for us from the Beatles concert, can go onto a memory clip and someone can watch it in their mind like they were actually there. One day these preloaded memory chips will go on the market with all the footage TARC has collected, and the whole country and world will want to get their hands on one.” Administrator Bray explained as he smirked.

“Okay, congrats on the future business plan? But that doesn’t answer my question at all.” Louis wanted to hit this guy in the face, but he knew if he did, he would surely be arrested. He needed to be completely free right now to fix this mess continuing to unfold in front of him.

“Ah, But I have a way. You just haven’t connected the dots yet. Let me do it for you, to save some time. As time traveling was occurring more often in the lab, I began having more feelings of déjà vu, and the feeling that something was off. The timeline detection system never seemed to pick up on anything, and nothing appeared to have changed so no one thought twice of it. When the memory chips were ready to be tested, I decided to test the memory chip out on my theory. Before a mission was about to take place, I inserted a memory chip and tried to fill it with everything I knew currently. I thought of my family, friends, the lab, current politics, etc.”

He paused and began messing around with something on his tablet. Louis was furious. He had already connected the dots and was seething with rage. He sat clenching his fists, trying to control his anger.

Administrator Bray continued. “I took the chip out and went to join the rest of the lab in preparation. The mission took place, and everything seemed perfectly normal, nothing seemed altered or out of place. I went back into my office and re-inserted the memory chip to play my thoughts and memories from before. I discovered an employee of the engineering side who worked with TARC before the mission, had never worked with us after the mission. I looked into it and found he was alive and well but had never chosen engineering as a career choice. Now I have no idea how the mission affected that, but in some way, it did, and no one in the lab even realized it.”

“Let me get this straight. The timeline gets altered every time someone goes back in time, but no one remembers it ever-changing in the first place. Isn’t there a paper trail or anything?” Louis rested his elbow against the table and placed his forehead on the palm of his hand.

“Nothing, any evidence of what the timeline was like before the mission, has completely been erased from everywhere. What makes the memory chip so special, is still a mystery to me, but it works.” The Administrator yawned and reclined back in his office chair, looking bored out of his mind.

“But there’s a mission once a week, how many times has the timeline gotten messed up and nobody realized it? And why do I still remember the past?” Louis said panicking. This was even worse than he thought.

“Oh, the timeline gets messed up every time there’s time travel. Some things are minor, and some major. As for you, the person who time travels also remembers the past, and what has changed.” He said nonchalantly.

“Well, what kind of major things? Did you go back and fix them?” Louis was seeing red.

“Don’t worry about them. I went back to fix a few that weren’t to my liking. You have to factor in the risk-reward analysis and see what’s at stake.”

“So, what? You're trying to play fucking God now? Trying to decide what version of history sounds better in the books? That’s a load of crap. You’re a sick and twisted human being that has no right being in charge of time travel.” Louis was standing up again pointing his finger at him. He had to tell someone about this. Administrator Bray needed to be fired immediately. He on the other hand just sat in his chair and laughed. “How does no one else know about this? What about the other people who time traveled? Why haven’t they exposed your ass? If they're too scared, I’ll do it for them.” That shut him up. His smile turned into a sinister smirk; one Louis had never seen on him before.

“People have noticed yes, and they’ve brought it to my attention. We’ve come to a mutual agreement though that if the timeline turns out better, we leave it, and if it turns out worse, we fix it. It’s a simple concept really, and no one will believe the accusations of a boy who’s practically still a child, to the highest position of NTTA. You have no evidence either, just my words to go on, so if I were you, I would get used to this new reality, that is until next week when it’ll change again. Oh wait, you won’t remember the change anyways.”

Louis slammed both his hands down on the table, making a loud smacking noise. His hands burned from it, but the pain felt good. It reminded him this was still a reality, and not a horrible nightmare. He hung his head for a moment and shook it back and forth trying to control his breathing, before starting with a different approach. Liam must have known about this and was just letting it happen. He had to put that thought aside for a second and focus on getting as much information as he could.

“What are you getting out of this? What could you possibly gain from watching the timeline humans created, spiraling out of control?”

“You make me sound so cruel, and heartless, but I assure you it’s not like that. You see, I now have something to protect. Something that the timeline changed gave me back. In the beginning, when I first found out the timeline was being altered, I used to do everything in my power to try to restore it. It didn’t matter if I told the others in the lab or not, because no one would remember. However, then your brother went on a mission, and things changed.” He poked at his tablet and slid it around toward Louis, displaying a picture of a young girl. “Did you know I had a daughter Louis?”

“Yeah, Devin, right?” He glanced at the picture of the biracial girl around eight, with curly black hair. She had flour all over his face and his hands were kneading dough.

“That’s right. My wife and I adopted her when she was just over a year old. What you may not recall, was my daughter being killed in a horrible car accident, and my wife being seriously injured four years ago.” He looked away for a moment towards the far wall and shook his head. “It was the absolute worst thing I ever had to go through. Then before you ever began training, your brother went on a mission and somehow it stopped the car accident from ever happening. After the mission, I watched the memory chip I recorded before the mission and saw all the sadness and pain I had been in. Then I went home that night to find my beautiful daughter bouncing around the house. There was no way in hell I was going to go back and reverse that. While your brother may not have followed orders, he brought my daughter back to life. Therefore, if the changes are for good, they don’t get changed. End of story.”

He got up from his chair and straightened out his suit jacket and tie. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I think we’re done here. You’re suspended from time travel indefinitely. As for your fate with TARC, that’s yet to be determined. I’ll have to discuss it further with my council. For now, you are free to go home.” He said, then quickly exited the room, leaving no room for questions or arguments.

Once he was gone, Louis sat back down and let his head fall onto the table. He banged it a few times against the glass in frustration giving himself a headache. He didn’t care. He sat back up and stood up collecting himself. He had to figure this all out. Administrator Bray had to be stopped. No, not just Administrator Bray, time travel in general needed to be stopped. He needs to bring Alex back to life, and then make sure the timeline doesn't get messed up anymore. The next time travel could cause a change in leaders again, or even the existence of his or one of his family members. He walked towards the door with his head held high. He left the room and walked down the hallway he was escorted through when he got back to the lab. He needed to find his parents, talk to Liam, and figure out how to steal a time machine, all before the end of the day.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read through and edited this when I was very tired so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes!

Louis walked back up to the main lab area he was familiar with. Even if it didn’t look familiar to him at all. His mom, brother, and his all rode together this morning, so he needed to find a ride home. Thankfully to his relief, his family was all in the lab, by a row of computers, talking. He approached them cautiously, not knowing how his parents would react to today. His dad noticed his first, and his mom and brother turned around to look at him as he approached.

“Louis.” His mother said sternly, before breaking and wrapping him into a hug. “What you did was not okay, and we’ll discuss that later. I’m just glad you’re okay. You could have been killed!” His mother quickly looked over his body for any scratches, before stepping back and giving him some space.

“Yes, what your mother said. It’s been an eventful day, but tomorrow your mother and I, want to sit down and talk with you about what happened. Liam has filled us in on the highlights, but we’d like your version of the story. Louis just nodded. He didn’t know what to say and was still trying to assess his parent’s feelings towards everything.

“Can we go home soon?” He asked his mom. It was his mom’s week to have Liam and his. Technically, since Louis and Liam were adults now, they didn’t have to follow the agreed custody schedule. The schedule had been ingrained into their bodies like clockwork though, and it worked for everyone. So, until they moved out, they decided to just stick with the schedule. “Yes, Liam are you ready to go?”

“Yep,” Liam said, slinging his messenger bag onto his shoulder. Louis went to the locker room to change and grab his belongings, before joining them again. 

They left shortly after that, making their commute into the suburbs. Louis wondered if Peyton would pick up on any tension between the three of them when they got home. Louis needed to talk to Liam, but first, he needed to hide in his room for a while. He couldn’t just sit around and cry like he wanted to though. He needed to be proactive and start mapping out a plan. First things first, he had to save Alex. He had a week before the next time travel took place, meaning he had a week to take down Administrator Bray.

The minute the car was in their garage, Louis dashed off to his room without a word. His mom and brother just let him be, while Peyton greeted him when he walked through the door and looked confused when he just kept walking. He made it to his room and shut and locked the door. He usually never locked his door anymore after the day of the fake house fire during his training. However, today he would make an exception. He went over to his bed and flopped down on it. He grabbed one of his pillows and hugged it to his chest, partly resting his face on it.

He wanted to confide so badly to someone, about everything that happened. He knew he had Liam, but Liam knew what Administrator Bray was doing, and never told anyone or tried to stop him. He could be okay with what he’s doing, for all Louis knew. He hoped, telling everything to him in the car, wouldn’t come back to haunt him later.

He wanted to tell Niall everything. He knew Niall would understand, and he may even know how to help him achieve his plan. He was already in so much trouble though and telling anyone outside of TARC about TARC was prohibited. At this point, what was breaking one more rule going to do? Louis wasn’t sure when he became this rebellious, but he hoped he could use it as a strength.

Louis reached for his cellphone that he had slipped into his back pocket when he had gotten out of the car. He clicked on Micha’s text thread and began typing a new message. He kept his message short and sweet, reading _Please come over._ Niall replied in seconds with an _Okay be there soon_ and Louis suddenly felt he could breathe a little better. He didn’t know what he was going to tell him when he got there, but just the idea of his presence made the dark storm clouds in his head subside.

Niall arrived fifteen minutes later, loudly knocking on his door when he couldn’t just waltz in because the door was locked. Louis pushed himself off the bed and unlocked the door. The minute he opened the door, Niall was making his way inside and flopping down on Louis’s bed where he was just lying.

“Really? You’re going to take my spot like that?” He said rolling his eyes.

“Well of course. It’s still warm, and your beds comfy.” He said as he kicked off his shoes and tossed them onto the floor. After knowing Niall for years, he now makes himself at home every time he comes over. “So, what’s going on? Usually, I only get that text when your sad, what happened?”

Louis had a choice to make, and quickly. He could lie and make up some bullshit reason or brush it off as just wanting to hang out. Or he could tell him the whole truth. He wished someone would give him a third option, but that didn’t happen.

“I…I…have to tell you something.” His mouth made up his decision for his, without consulting his first. At this point, he could still get out of it, but he didn’t want a way out. He wanted more than anything, to get this secret off his chest. He walked toward the bed, and sat down on the edge, by Niall’s legs. “You know how there’s time travel and NTTA?”

“Yeah?” He asked squinting in confusion at Louis.

“Well, what people don’t know is there’s a group under NTTA called TARC, Timeless Artifacts Retrieval Commission, and my parent’s brother and I work for it.”

“Okay…and what exactly does TARC do?”

“We time travel back and get important video footage of historic things, and my first mission was today, but I kind of fucked it up.”

Niall sat up and crossed his legs, so he was completely facing Louis. “Wait, so you time traveled today?” Louis could tell Niall thought he was joking.

“Yes, and it was a shit show.” He said falling back onto Niall.

“You’re being serious?”

He stared up at the ceiling, thinking about the days he just spent in 1964. In a way, it almost felt unreal, like a dream that lasted the whole night. A part of his wished it hadn’t been real. Alex was always going to be a distant memory for him anyways, and if it were never real, then Alex would have never died. “Yeah, I’m serious.” He quietly mumbled.

Niall shifted Louis's head, so it was in his lap, and he softly started stroking his hair. “Okay, it’s going to take me a while to wrap my head around that one, but you went back to 1964. So how did you fuck up your…. mission, you called it?”

“Yeah, I had a mission to retrieve video footage from a Beatles concert and a baseball game, over the span of four days. I kind of got a little sidetracked though.”

“Ooo sounds intriguing! I want details now, and then we’ll judge how badly you apparently screwed it up.”

Louis rolled his eyes at that because he knew by the time, he was finished, there would be no questioning how badly he messed up, it would be pretty evident. He told him everything though, starting from the beginning, and giving him all the details, he hadn’t told Liam or the council. Niall stopped him multiple times during the story to get further details or clarify things he had said. He seemed absolutely fascinated with Alex and wanted to know everything about him.

Louis had dated a few people in the past and had one serious relationship for a year, but nothing serious lately. Niall always tried to encourage him to get out more and meet new people. Mainly so Louis wasn’t third-wheeling when Niall would invite Shawn, his boyfriend, out. They had a bigger group of friends they would hang out with too, but Niall was his home base. He always went to him first and vice versa.

By the time Louis had made it to where Liam rescued him, Niall and he were both trying to fight back tears. Niall was still stroking his hair, but also rested his free hand on his shoulder as a reminder that he was there. The presence was calming to Louis and he was happy he left it there.

“Okay so Liam rescued you, but what happens when you get back to the lab?” Niall asked, his voice a little choked up.

“Right so that’s when everything got even more fucked up, thanks to Administrator Bray.” Louis filled him in on his discussion with the council, then his not so pleasant conversation with the Administrator. Just talking about him got his blood boiling. Louis could tell Niall was getting mad too. The comforting pressure on his shoulder turned into a tight squeeze.

“So, we had a different president technically this morning, but only you and the Administrator remember this?” Niall kept getting confused, and Louis was trying to explain It the best he could, but the whole situation was a confusing mess. His head felt like it was spinning, but a sense of relief now ran over his, at finally getting to talk to someone that he trusted about this.

“Our current president should be Maria Flores, who was great and well-liked. Now we have this Hall guy and I don’t like it.”

“You don’t remember President Hall getting inaugurated at all?” Niall asked, as he gently moved Louis’s head off his lap and moved to lie down next to his.

“No, I don’t even know what the guy looks like, this is not how the timeline originally was,” Louis said rubbing his hands over his face. He caught a glimpse of his nails now a bloody mess, from nervously picking at them while recalling everything that happened.

“Okay, so how are we going to fix this?” Niall said, turning his head to face Louis’s.

“We?”

“Well, you’re obviously going to need help. Do you think one person’s going to be able to take downtime travel? Geezzz come on Louis you’re smarter than that.”

Louis stuck his tongue out at him playfully, but deep down he was relieved and grateful. He had no idea how he was going to do any of it by himself. “We need to go back to 1964 first and save Alex, but you’ve never time traveled before, or have the training to do so.”

You’re not wrong there, but you also can’t take down a group of five guys by yourself without having a gun, and from what I’ve gathered, that would only mess up the timeline more,” Niall said, crossing his arms over his chest as he thought.

“Yes, you’re right. I’ll need your help to take them down before they ever get to Alex and me.”

“Louis, you were going to come back to our time, right? Before you were forced to.”

Louis was taken back by the question. “Of course. I couldn’t just stay in 1964, it’s not my home, and I never belonged there in the first place. I would give anything to see Alex again, but we could have never had anything real because we're from a century apart.”

Niall seemed satisfied with this answer. “I just wanted to make sure, because if we stopped those guys and then you never came back to the future, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

They were both quiet for a minute pondering that scenario. Louis didn’t want to think about it though and got back to work. “So, we need to break into the lab, and steal a time machine.” He said matter of fact.

“I’m sorry? What?” Niall sat up from the bed and looked at Louis like he had two heads.

“I know it’s a little risky, but it’s the only way. I don’t think I’ll have clearance anymore, but Liam should, and as soon as I figure out whose side, he’s on, then I’ll know if we can rely on him to break us in.

“Right, and how many laws will I be breaking in the next 24 hours?”

“If it makes you feel better, if everything goes right you probably won’t get in too much trouble.” Louis plastered a grin on his face, and Niall threw a pillow at his.

“Okay, enough joking around. Here’s the plan. In the middle of the night, tonight, we break into the lab, take a time machine to 1964, stop those guys from getting to Alex and me, come back, and then hopefully the timeline will be fixed.” Louis said, trying to sound confident. He wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince Niall or himself.

"How are we going to take down Administrator Bray after that?”

“I need to talk to Liam about that, but I think I know a way.”

***

Niall went home shortly after that, with the promise to be outside Louis’s bedroom window at a quarter to 2 a.m. After Louis let Niall out the front door, he wandered into the kitchen to see if Liam had returned home yet for dinner. Liam was nowhere in sight, but Peyton was at the kitchen island preparing dinner.

“Hey, have you, seen mom?” Louis asked Peyton as he stirred something in a pot.

“Yeah, he said he had a really rough day at work today, and said he needed to lie down before dinner. Did he mention anything to you about what happened? I know he can’t really talk about his job; I get it, I just wish I knew what was going on sometimes.”

 _No, you don't, Louis_ thought to himself. “I know just as much as you do, but I’m sure his job is stressful.” He tried to play it off.

“Well, if you go upstairs, please tell his dinner’s almost ready.” He said as the timer on the oven went off.

Louis walked out of the kitchen and upstairs to his mom and Peyton’s bedroom. His mom was sitting up against the pillows of his bed, reading a book. Something he often did to relax at night. He looked up from his book as he saw Louis standing awkwardly in the doorway.

“Did you need something dear?” His mother asked, putting his thumb on the page he was at and closed his book between his thumb.

Thinking beforehand what he was going to say, wasn’t a strong suit for Louis. He always seemed to just wing it. He wanted to know if his mom knew of anything that’s happened with the timeline or Administrator Bray, even though he assumed his mom knew nothing. He at least had to ask.

He stepped inside the bedroom and gently closed the door behind his, just to make sure Peyton couldn’t hear them. “Mom, do you ever remember a time where the timeline seemed off or you remembered it differently?”

His mom looked at his studying his face, before contemplating the question. “Not that I can recall, why?”

“If I told you this morning, before my mission, we had a different president in charge of our country, what would you say?”

“I’d say that’s ridiculous. Louis, what is this about?” His mother asked, in a worried voice.

“Never mind, forget it. Oh, and dinner’s almost ready.” He said, before quickly darting out of the room and into his own.

He was relieved to know at least his mom didn’t have any prior knowledge of what was going on and wasn’t doing anything about it. He genuinely didn’t know what was happening right under his nose. Louis was pretty sure the majority of employees at the lab didn’t know. He wasn’t even sure if the Administrator’s council knew. If they were all in on it, then it could be much harder to take him down.

Louis ate a normal family meal with his mom and Peyton shortly after the conversation with his mom. The dinner felt so normal and cliché, Louis almost wanted to laugh. In a day filled with bizarre and abnormal things, something so domestic felt foreign and out of place. It was nice though. It took a little bit of the constant edge he was feeling and smoothed it over with the comforting of a home-cooked meal.

When the meal was over, and dishes cleaned, Louis sat in the living room and scrolled on his tablet. He sat waiting for Liam to return home and planned out the night's plan while he waited. Louis hoped he came home to their mom's tonight and didn’t decide to stay at their dad's instead. Knowing what side Liam was on would make or break everything, Louis wasn’t sure if he was really ready to know the answer.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't update yesterday! I work a full-time job and am in grad school so extra time during the week is a luxury.

Louis sat in the living room and waited for hours. His mom and Peyton had gone to bed an hour ago and he was left to the quiet noises of the night. He turned on the projector to stream television channels on the smooth white wall. Close to midnight Liam finally walked through the front door, carrying his messenger bag.

He immediately looked at Louis when he walked in with a sympathetic look.

“Hey. I thought you’d be asleep by now, given the day you’ve had.” He said quietly, as he set his bag down by the door and made his way over to the other couch.

“I don’t think I could sleep right now if I tried,” Louis answered honestly. While the rest of his body would argue, sleep was the last thing on his mind.

“How did talking to the council and Administrator Bray go?”

“Not well, or at least not how I had hoped or expected it to go,” Louis said, shifting so that he was fully facing Liam on the other couch nearby.

“I didn’t think it would be honest. The council likes to keep then

peace and cover up problems and Bray…. What did Bray say today?”

“Well, I was going to talk to you about that. He said quite a lot of things, and from what I gathered, it sounds like you knew about some of those things.”

Liam rolled his eyes and huffed a breath of annoyance, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “I knew that son of bitch was going to make me out to be the bad guy. Look I’ll explain all of that later, just tell me what he said.”

“First, he was the only other person who knew of the president's change.”

“President change?”

“The timeline changed. When Alex was killed, our current president got changed, but how do you not remember if you traveled back in time with me?” Louis was still confused about how all this worked. In his training, he was taught not to change the timeline and ways to prevent it, but never what occurred when the timeline was changed. Before he gave Liam any real information, he wanted to know what happened early today when he didn’t return on time.

“Alex was dead by the time I got to you. If he was already dead, then the timeline had already changed, while I was traveling.

“So then when did you leave to travel back? And why did you come if you said you weren’t supposed to be time-traveling anymore? Louis asked as he watched an emotion wash over Liam’s face for a moment that he couldn’t name before quickly disappearing.

“We had it exactly timed, when the baseball game had ended, and a window of when you should have been back by. We gave you a window of twenty seconds, which was a few hours back in 1964 to factor in the time it would take to travel back. When the clock passed the twenty seconds mark, everyone held their breath. Some thought you had been hurt or something was wrong, while others thought you were rebelling. But no one was doing anything about it. Everyone was throwing out their speculations, but I saw no one preparing a time machine to go find out the truth.”

He stopped and took a deep breath, staring down at his hands. “You’re my only sibling, and I know how ambitious you can be sometimes. I wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing while you didn’t come home. I started running out of the main room, and down the hall to the other time machine. People started running after me, and it only fueled me to run faster. I made it to the time machine and was about to jump in when a guy from engineering grabbed my shoulder and tried to pull me back. So, I may have punched him in the face…it was in the moment and it happened so fast.”

Liam looked at Louis sheepishly at that, but he knew Liam wasn’t really sorry for punching the guy. When Liam decided he was going to do something, he wasn’t going to let anything or anyone stop him, so really it was the guy's fault for trying to stop him. Louis shook his head but laughed a little.

“Yeah, yeah laugh it up. Anyways, I got in the time machine and quickly put in the right date and time. Then I floored it and almost hit a few people running after me before I was on my way back to get you. Thankfully I showed up when I did. That whole ride there was just agonizingly brutal. I just kept thinking, _What if something’s wrong? And I’m too late_. And I hadn’t time traveled in a while so there were a few things I had forgotten.”

“Thank you for saving me. Too bad you can’t talk about it, that little story would be quite the conversation starter at a party.” Louis said laughing and Liam joined in. It felt good to laugh after such an eventful day. He felt like it felt a little out of place but relieving.

“Joking aside, I’ve always got your back little sis. I’m sure by now you’ve figured out TARC isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” Liam said, his tone turning bitter.

“Yeah, unfortunately, I learned that bit of information today.”

“I wanted to warn you, but I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me until you saw it for yourself. I had just hoped it wasn’t as severe as today turned out to be.” He said. The sounds of the television still played in the background and illuminated their faces in the dim-lit room but were ultimately forgotten about.

“So, what do you know?” Louis asked, trying to play coy.

“Oh no, you first.”

“Fine.” Louis huffed in annoyance. “Today I learned, the timeline’s being changed with every mission, and the person who went on the mission, and Administrator Bray are the only two that know of the changes. Also, the Administrator is using memory chips to record his thoughts and memories, which is how he knows all this. And he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon, or going back to save Alex, because this new president gave NTTA more funding.”

“Good, you're now caught up to speed in this mess,” Liam said, looking a little relieved.

“The Administrator told me about how one of your missions brought his daughter back to life. Is that the mission that got you put on timeline monitoring? Which I’ve come to realize isn’t a real job.”

“Unfortunately, yes, it was only my second mission too. On my first mission, I thought something felt different, but the change wasn’t big enough for me to notice.”

“If you knew all this was happening why didn’t you say anything?” That’s what Louis had been waiting to ask this whole time.

“I tried, or at least tried telling mom and dad. They don’t believe me, they think I’m full of shit because it can’t possibly fit into their scientific reasoning. Since they can’t remember the change, they won’t believe the possibility of it happening. They were especially upset about me talking badly about Administrator Bray. So, either I could quit and just forget that the timeline was continuously being messed up, or I could stay at my new bullshit job and at least try to keep an eye on things.”

Louis could feel Liam’s anger toward their parents, and he felt it too. He knew there was no point in telling his mom anything earlier because he would have never believed his. Their parents relied on science and reason, and not trust. It was something Louis and Liam had grown up with, so while it was a great annoyance, it was to be expected at this point.

“So, you’re definitely against Administrator crazy and all his evil scheming, right?” He was pretty sure the answer was yes, but it was always good to clarify.

“Yes, I’m against it. I would take that guy down in a second if I knew how to.”

“Well, now that I know what’s going on, I plan on taking him down. We can’t let this continue on and have the timeline go to utter shit. As it is, I’m going to go back and fix it tonight.” Louis said, pulling his tablet back into his lap to review his plan.

“What, tonight? How the hell do you plan to do that? And alone?” He asked, confused.

“Actually… I won’t be alone. I kind of told Niall everything, and he offered to help. I also could really use your help in the process of breaking into the lab.” He said batting his eyelashes and giving his best puppy dog eyes.

“Why on Earth would you tell Niall?” Be yelled in a whisper, so he wouldn’t wake their mom and Peyton, but to show his displeasure.

“I know it was stupid, but I really needed someone else to talk to about everything. I honestly trust him with our secret. We can trust him not to tell anyone, and he’s offered to help, which is something we need.”

“And what exactly does he plan on helping with? What is this plan you seem to already have figured out?” Liam asked. Louis knew Liam could read his like a book and knew he was always plotting or planning something. He liked to be prepared.

“In a few hours, we’re going to sneak into the lab, with the help of my amazing brother.” He plastered on a huge grin and looked at Liam before he went back to reading his plan. “Then Niall and I go back to 1964, during the time Alex and I was at the club after the game. Then Niall and I will attack the guys who went after Alex and me, so they can never reach us in the first place. Then we come back to the present, and the timeline and Alex are saved. Boom!” Louis said, feeling adrenaline pumping through his veins. 

“It sounds like a solid plan in theory, but do you actually think it’ll go that smoothly?” Liam asked skeptically.

“One can only hope. Then when that whole mess is dealt with we move on to taking down Administrator Bray and I think that might involve taking downtime travel.” Louis said, trying to gauge Liam’s reaction. The words didn’t seem to faze him like he had been thinking the same thing.

“I know you mean well Louis, but I don’t think two young adults can take down a division of the government and just up and stop time travel around the world.”

“If we can get evidence of what’s happening, it’ll change everyone’s mind. No one will want to time travel anymore when they realize the consequences.” Louis said confidently, but he hasn’t convinced himself that was the truth. They could collect a pile of evidence, and people could still choose to ignore them for the luxury and exploration of time travel. They could be in over their heads. “We can’t sit here and just do nothing. If we have to stand on a soapbox in time square and shout at people then so be it. We have to attempt to do what’s right.”

“I agree with you, but what about mom and dad?” Liam asked quietly. It was a question Louis had thought but had pushed it to the back of his mind.

“If they knew what was going on, and we showed them proof, I would hope they would believe us and encourage us to take action.”

“I know you’re right, but damn this is crazy, and how are we going to get proof?” Liam said rubbing his hands over his face. He knew it was a lot to take in, but Louis didn’t have time to think about how crazy or stupid it was. He just wanted to fix this mess.

“We take the memory chips he has stashed somewhere. I don’t know-how, or when, but that’s our evidence.”

“You know, you’re smarter than I give you credit for.” He said with a smirk, and Louis stuck his tongue out at him. 

“Yes well, the genius is going to his room now. I need to research a few things but be ready to go by a quarter to 2. That’s when Niall’s showing up.” Louis said getting up from the couch.

“Sounds good, I think I’m going to stay down here and watch some television, I need to unwind.”

***

Louis nodded and headed upstairs to his room. He wanted to research Alex. He figured he might not find much online, but it was worth a shot. He didn’t look him up before when he was waiting for Liam, because he wasn’t sure when he would get back. He wanted to be completely alone when he did so.

He glanced over at his bed longingly. Sleep called to him, but he had to resist, no matter how enticing his bed looked. He looked the other way and walked directly to his desk. He had brought his tablet with his and stood it up by its kickstand on top of the desk. He sat down in his desk chair and pulled up a new browser window on his tablet. He started with a simple search of Alex Hudson and got thousands of results. He added Chicago, IL on the end, and the results started to slim down. Then he tacked on the obituary to the end and clicked on the first result. That was his Alex. He read the whole obituary, and only had a few tears. His eyes felt like a dried-up well, with only a small drop of water left.

After he was done reading the obituary, he began clicking through newspaper articles. Many described Alex’s death as a “brutal murder” with the person or persons responsible never being caught. Louis couldn’t believe that even after Liam stunning them, the men were still able to escape before anyone could ever find them. It made Louis want to find them more and do his worst, without actually killing them. A part of Louis desired to murder these men and make them pay, but he knew no well would come from it. It would just satisfy his craving for sweet revenge.

As Louis read through articles, he began to piece together the story of what happened after Liam and his left. His body was found by a person who happened to be walking in the alley. Louis thought it was probably someone from the club who found his, who probably warned everyone in the club to leave before the police were called. The police tried to find his murderer, but the case was never solved. Roland had stepped forward after his death and paid for his funeral costs. The article made it seem he was just a rich citizen touched by the story and wanted to help. Alex’s father probably never knew Roland and Alex had been friends.

After six articles, he had to stop reading. They started to become redundant, and he felt a heavyweight of sadness he had never felt before today. His head began to throb, and he closed his eyes, maneuvering blindly to his bed, and fell onto it. He didn’t open his eyes again, before falling into a deep dreamless sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please enjoy one of my favorite chapters. Let me know what you think.

He woke up to a gentle knocking at his door, that became more and more persistent. He felt disoriented and his body heavy, as he maneuvered his way to the door. He opened it to find Niall and Liam waiting on the other side. He yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, as he ushered them into his room.

“I thought you were going to fall asleep?” Liam said mockingly.

“Hey, shut up, it’s been a long day.” He said back, his voice raspy from sleep. Louis looked over at Niall and was thankful he had thought to where the closest thing to proper attire he could come up with on the fly. “I have to change at the lab.”

“We better get going,” Niall said, looking down at his smartwatch. Louis and Liam both agreed, and they all made their way downstairs.

They decided Liam would drive and they all piled into his car. The traffic was virtually nothing at night, so the drive went by quickly. Music played quietly in the background, and no one spoke much. Louis assumed Niall was nervous about time traveling, while Louis was nervous about when they got back to 1964. He had no idea what Liam was thinking, but he guessed it was them getting caught.

When they arrived at the entrance to the lab, Liam slid his I.D badge in the machine to open the gates. They both knew the place was surrounded by cameras, they just hoped no one was watching them that closely. With the proper clearance badges, they hoped they wouldn’t tip any of the security systems off.

Liam parked next to the front entrance, and they climbed out of the car. They walked up to the door, and Liam scanned his badge again, unlocking the door. The lights automatically turned on, when they sensed movement in the room, illuminating everything in bright fluorescent light. Louis and Liam started walking to the main lab room, as Niall followed closely behind staring at everything with wide eyes.

“I guess you weren’t kidding, about the whole time travel thing.” Niall jokes, and Louis and Liam both shrugged with amused smiles.

They made it to the main area, and Louis was relieved to see the time machine Liam drove earlier was still there.

“Okay guys, you do your thing, I have to go do something. I’ll meet you back here when you get back.” Liam said, already heading towards the door.

“We won’t be gone long in this time, so don’t be long.” Louis called after him. He turned back to Niall who was cautiously touching the time machine with his hand. “I have to go change, but I’ll be right back. Please don’t touch or break anything, I’m not sure how to fix any of this stuff.”

“Right, don’t touch the expensive government equipment. Got it.” He said slowly retreating his hand from the hood of the time machine.

Louis made his way to the locker room and changed into the clothes he had on earlier. He quickly used the bathroom and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror while washing his hands. He felt he looked weird without having his glasses to complete his outfit. He had started to get used to the feeling of having the glasses perched on his nose, and constantly feeling to make sure they were still there. He had been paranoid he was going to lose them, epically since they were so crucial to his mission.

He left the locker room, but instead of heading back to the main room, he made his way down a different hallway, in the science branch. The lights turned on as he walked down the hallway, and his footsteps echoed throughout. When he started training for TARC, his parents began sharing some of the top-secret things their departments were developing. They figured he would see or hear about them anyway since he would be in the lab more often. He remembered his mom talking about the memory chip one day. He had been thrilled when the first thought was recorded, and it had been a success. His mom was one of the top scientists on the project and was proud of his work.

Louis made it to the door, he had always come to when he would visit his mom on the rare occasion. He twisted the doorknob and found it to be locked. He placed his hand on the fingerprint scanner and held his breath. He was never sure what part he had clearance to, he had always gone where he was told to. During the day when the lab was crowded with people, doors were unlocked or swung open constantly making it easy to get to places without security clearance. The scanner lit up and began scanning his hand before Louis heard the click of a door being unlocked. He breathed a sigh of relief and swung the door open.

He walked in and immediately began searching. He knew the memory chips were probably locked up, but he had to find where. As he passed by lab tables, he noticed a workstation that hadn’t been cleaned up. Tools and papers laid spread out across the table. In the midst of the clutter was a small chip, that looked like what his mother described the memory chip to look like. He held the tack size memory chip in his hand. It mimicked the look of a tack too with a small point coming out of it. Louis knew the point was to insert the memory chip.

Without wasting any time, Louis took the sharp end of the memory chip and pushed it into the side of his neck. He began to think of his family and friends. He thought of who the current president was, and how the lab currently looked. When he thought he covered everything important, he pulled the chip out and placed it in his pocket.

He wasted no time walking out of the room and back to the hallway, closing the door behind him. Niall was probably wondering what was taking him so long, and he was afraid cops would show up any minute. He started jogging back to the main room of the lab and didn’t stop till he busted through the corridors. Niall whipped his head around in surprise, but quickly recovered, as Louis jogged over to him.

“Okay, ready to go on your first and probably last time travel adventure?” Louis asked as he opened the door to the driver’s side of the time machine and got in.

“Yes, but no? I don’t know it’s a lot of mixed feelings, but mostly of excitement.” Niall said as he got into the passenger side. “Also, aren’t you supposed to like have the monitors out there going or like to check a bunch of stuff before we leave? Or is that just for the movies?”

“Normally we would, but there’s not enough time, and even in a time machine we can’t stop time. We can move forward or backward, but not pause it.” Louis said turning the engine on and watching as the monitors came to life. He read all of them to make sure all the levels were good.

“Time is a weird thing,” Niall said as he studied the monitors that now displayed various data.

“Yeah well get ready to go back in it, because we’re ready to leave. Better buckle up for safety. Niall obeyed and placed his hands in his lap where Louis could see they were gripping his thighs.

Louis shifted the time machine into gear and repeated what he had done yesterday morning for the first time. They sped towards the wall of the lab, and Niall began screaming in panic before they were transported out of the lab. Louis had to shake Niall to get him to open his eyes and stop screaming. He frantically looked around realizing they were no longer heading towards a wall. Instead, they were just surrounded by mostly darkness, with bursts of light and color every once in a while.

***

The portal to 1964 approached, and Niall held on to the dashboard as the time machine appeared on the solid road. They were on the road right outside the concert venue and the alley with the club. Louis had made sure to go back at 9 p.m. so past his and Alex were already in the club, but it was plenty of time before the group of men arrived.

Louis pulled the time machine to a parallel spot on the street and turned off the engine. Niall was still in awe of the new appearance the time machine had taken on. He was running his hands over the seat and dashboard trying to take it all in.

“Well, welcome to 1964,” Louis said, making a gesture to the window with his hands.

“You didn’t tell me the time machine was going to change! And everything looks the same but different. No one’s looking down at their phones or tablets. These people are just walking and talking to each other on the sidewalk. Everyone’s dressed up so nicely too. Everything’s just so foreign.”

Louis understood exactly what Niall was saying. That’s how he had felt too when he had first arrived, but unlike Niall, he at least got some training beforehand. He had known what to expect of 1964, so the cultural shock wasn’t as big. This was all foreign, scary, and exciting for Niall. Louis just hoped he would be able to stay focused enough to do what they came to do.

“I wish you could stay here longer, and for more exciting reasons, but unfortunately we have important business, to take care of,” Louis said unbuckling his seatbelt.

“Right, so when are we expecting these guys to show up, and what are we going to do when that happens?”

“It’s currently 9 p.m. and the guys won’t be to the alleyway till after 11. We can wait in the car for now, but when it gets closer, I say we wait in front of that building” Louis pointed to the building to their right “until they come walking down the street. Then we either find a way to knock them out or distract them so they don’t go into the alleyway.”

“I don’t think you and I have the ability to knock them out, so distraction it is,” Niall said with a slight laugh.

“Okay distraction it is. Now we wait.”

“Well, what are we supposed to do for two hours?”

“I don’t know. We can’t leave the car till it’s time. We could easily mess up the timeline without even knowing it.” Louis said getting anxious just thinking about it.

“So, I traveled all the way back in time to wait in a car and then distracted a group of guys? Yeah, no one’s going to ever believe this story.”

“That’s okay your best friend will always know it’s true.” He said flashing him a toothy grin.

They waited in the car listening to the popular songs on the radio, and a comedic radio show. Louis felt bad, Niall came all this way and couldn’t go exploring as he had, but they couldn’t risk it. At around eleven they got out of the car and headed over to lean against the brick building. A trickle of people passed by on the streets and the sound of cars and radios could be heard passing by on the street. The loud sounds of the city were familiar and comforting to both as they leaned against the wall on the lookout.

“So how exactly are we going to distract them? Should I strip off my clothes and streak down the street?” Niall asked jokingly.

“As amusing as that would be, we definitely can’t risk you getting arrested.”

“Okay, then what’s your idea?” He asked.

“Well, we can’t stand in the alleyway to distract them, because then myself from the past could spot me or you.” He voiced his train of thought out loud. “Maybe if we screamed fire, they would run the other way?”

“We’re trying to distract them, not draw the attention of everyone currently on the streets.” Niall countered back, and he was right.

“Maybe we should just improve it and see how it goes. If worse comes to worst, we fight them off, but we have to be on our way back before Liam from the past shows up to get Louis from the past.” Louis explained. Niall just shook his head.

“Time travel is a complicated thing.” He said watching the cars go by.

They stood around for a while constantly looking both ways, and across the street for any sign of a group of guys. Louis was still wearing his smartwatch because he forgot to take it off when he changed. He had taken it off his wrist and put it in his pocket to hide but would frequently steal glances at the time.

Near 11:20 Louis could see the outline of five guys walking down the poorly lit street. The silhouettes of their shadows danced along the buildings and sidewalk as they got closer and closer to Niall and his. When they got closer Louis took a step away from the building and into the walking path of the men. Niall hesitantly stepped next to his and looked over to him with a questioning look. Louis knew by now his past self and Alex was probably making out in the dark just around the corner. The thought of Alex still being alive here, washed over Louis with relief and happiness. Louis was planning in his mind to ask for directions or distract them somehow by words, but when he saw the leader of the group, he changed his mind. It felt like something inside of him snapped, and a fit of anger was released.

As the men approached them, Louis walked up to the leader, closing the gap between them, and punched him square in the jaw with all his strength. In one swift motion, he kicked him in the groin, immediately following the punch. He saw out of the corner of his eye, the guy fell to the ground, but he had already moved on to the guy next to the leader, punching him in the face. By this point, Niall understood what the plan was and punched the guy on the other side of the leader. The two other guys in the group realized they were under attack and began to try to fight off Louis and Niall. Now it was an even two on two, but Louis knew the other guys would recover quickly. Niall and I both threw punches left and right, with blood now dripping from their knuckles.

The guy Louis was hitting, looked hesitant to hit a girl at first, but when Louis didn’t ease up, he took a swing, causing Louis to step backward. They were now all making a commotion and drawing attention, as people walking by stopped to stare. Thankfully for Louis, to the people passing by, it looked like he was being attacked, and many men rushed to his aid. Niall got punched once in the process, but Louis quickly told the extra help that he was helping. All five of the men were down by the time multiple police showed up to break up the fight. Louis wasn’t sure if they had happened to be passing by, or if someone called the cops on them.

He hoped his past self and Alex didn’t hear the commotion and spotted him in the process. He glanced over to the alleyway and didn’t see anyone standing in the entrance. He was too far away, and at an angle to see if anyone was in the alleyway. The police were handcuffing the five men, as people started to disburse. Niall was giving his side of the story to a cop, while Louis crept closer to the alley. He peeked his head around the corner, and found his past self, leaning against one of the walls of the alley staring right at him. Louis couldn’t quickly turn back; he had already been seen. He looked back to make sure no one was paying attention, before slipping around the corner and over towards himself.

It was a surreal experience seeing himself from yesterday in front of him. It was like looking in a mirror or having an identical twin. His past self, looked worried, confused, and a little drunk as he pushed himself off the wall and towards Louis.

“What the hell is this? Who are you and why are you here?” His past self said crossing his arms over his chest.

“I’m you from tomorrow in 2064, here to save you and Alex from a fatal situation. Your welcome.” Louis said, mimicking his past self’s pose.

“Wait, did I originally die on this mission? Is it because I didn’t come back right after the game?”

“No, you were shaken up, but fine. Alex on the other hand was beaten to death by a bunch of scumbags, but it’s fine now Niall and I took care of it before they ever got to you guys.” Louis said proudly.

“Wait, Niall’s here? He knows about time travel?”

“It’s a long story that we don’t have time to get into but listen you have to come home tonight and soon. Liam will be here any minute to come to get you. You need to tell Alex goodbye now while you have the chance. Also, give him the rest of the money you have leftover. Trust me the lab doesn’t need it, and Alex could use it more. Just tell the people at the lab that you gave it to someone in need.”

“Yeah that’s a great idea, you’re right!” Past him said slightly slurred. “I’m going to do that now. I’d say see you later, but I'm kind of hope I don’t have to look at myself outside of a mirror again because if I do it probably means something bad is happening.” He said as he began to walk towards the club door.

“That’s true, don’t be stupid, and make good choices.” Louis laughed and walked in the opposite direction.

When he rounded the corner, he saw all the guys being escorted into police cruisers and Niall finishing up talking to an officer. Another officer noticed him and quickly came over to ask him questions. Louis made up a story about how the group of guys attacked him out of nowhere, and Niall stepped in to help. He hoped it was enough of a similar story to what Niall told the other officer. 

When they were done giving their statements, they walked to the time machine and got in. Louis turned on the engine, as Niall began talking.

“Would it kill you to warn a guy, before you decide to start punching a bunch of guys on the street?” He shouted in a whisper.

“I couldn’t have given you a warning, because I wasn’t planning on doing it. It just came over me when I saw him. Thankfully it worked out in the end, though.” He said nudging Niall in the ribs. “We have to go though, like now.”

He put the time machine and drive and pulled onto the main road. He drove a block down, and turned into a vacant side street, before flooring the gas. The time machine jumped through the portal and switched back to its original form. Not long into the ride back, Niall fell asleep staying that way for the rest of the ride, while Louis stayed lost in his thoughts.

The portal back to 2064 was off in the distance, and Louis shook Niall awake to warn him. Neither one knew what was going to be waiting for them when they got back. They had only been a few seconds in the future, but people could easily be on their way to stop then. The minute they got back, they had to find Liam and get out of the lab as quickly as possible which sounded easier said than done.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Okay, I'm back sorry for no update yesterday. My goal is to finish uploading the rest of the story either today or tomorrow. However, it turns out to be it will definitely be fully uploaded by tomorrow.

In the blink of an eye, they were back in the lab. Louis breathed a sigh of relief to see the lab looking like how it did before he went to 1964 the first time. After opening the door and quickly doing a 360 of the room, they appeared to still be alone.

“Wait a minute, this wasn’t how the lab looked before we left,” Niall said, exiting the time machine in a panic, and ultimately face planting onto the ground. Louis quickly ran over to help his clumsy friend up, before responding.

“No, it isn’t, and that’s a good thing! Hopefully, that means things are fixed to how they were before I timed traveled for the first time.” He said inspecting Niall of any injury. He rubbed his elbow but assured him he was fine.

“Damn, I knew the president got changed, but I didn’t realize there were smaller changes too,” Niall said, as Louis quickly checked over the time machine before they left.

“That’s why time travel isn’t a good thing anymore. Every time it happens, we have no idea how many big or small things are getting changed because no one remembers.”

“So, you’re going to try to stop it right?” They started making their way across the lab towards the door.

“Liam and I will do everything in our power to.” He said confidently. “Speaking of Liam, we really need to find him and get the hell out of here.” He had no idea what he was up to.

They went through the double doors and were immediately surrounded by police with guns. Guns were pointed at them, and Louis and Niall immediately put their hands up in surrender. To his right he saw Liam was already in handcuffs, he made eye contact with him briefly before police were shouting things at him.

“Keep your hands up, and don’t move! An officer is coming to handcuff you now.”

Louis and Niall obeyed. He had no idea what was going to happen to them now, and he felt bad for getting Niall involved with this. He selfishly thought he was at least happy Alex was alive again though. At least one good thing came from all of this. An officer came over and patted them both down for weapons before cuffing Niall first, and then Louis, while guns were still pointed at them.

“Okay let’s take them in.” An officer said, and all three of them were led out of the building and into three separate squad cars. Niall looked frantically at Louis as they were separated and Louis tried to communicate with his eyes that it was going to be okay, even if he wasn’t sure himself.

He had no idea if things were going to be okay. They could be going to jail for all he knew. He knew they would be interrogated again, but at least now he had supporting evidence to show them why he did what he did. He didn’t know what Liam was doing, but he wondered if whatever it was, would get him into more trouble, or take all of them down. If anything, he wanted Niall to be let go. He knew he offered to help, but he should have never accepted it and drag him into this. He and Liam could have figured things out on their own, and Niall would have been free and safe in bed.

He assumed when they got to the station, their parents would be called. He couldn’t even imagine how his parents' faces would look when they got the call. The confusion and disappointment across their features. They hadn’t even had a proper talk about everything that happened yet, so this new turn of events would probably leave them in utter confusion and disarray.

The car traveled across town to the local police station. A place Louis had never been inside until this point. The cars parked, and the door closest to Louis was being opened. Louis awkwardly stepped out, with his hands behind his back, and a hand was quickly placed on his shoulder to guide him. He watched as Liam and Niall were also being led to the door, and they all looked around at each other with worried faces.

When they got in the door all three of them were led to individual interrogation rooms, where they were told to have a seat at a table. An officer unhandcuffed Louis, and he began to rub his now sore wrists. The officer told him to stay seated and then proceeded to exit the room shutting the door loudly behind him. Louis slouched in his seat and leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling. He reached into his pocket to feel the small memory chip buried deep inside. He smirked to himself and visibly relaxed. Then it occurred to him, should he be telling the police about TARC? It was common knowledge about NTTA, but TARC was a top-secret organization that he already outed to one person. Should he be telling the whole police department about it too?

That was it though, he realized. Alerting the police about Administrator Bray, and everything going on, may just be the beginning of taking down time travel. He just has to get them to believe him. They’ll have to dig deep and get clearance to find that TARC even exists, but if they would listen to him, it was worth a shot.

About ten minutes later, the door to the room opened and a female cop came in. She walked in front of the table with a hard look on her face.

“My name's Detective Knight, can you please state your name?”

“Louis Tomlinson.”

“And what are your relations with the other two gentlemen that came in with you?”

“Liam Tomlinson is my brother, and Niall Horan is my best friend.” The detective made notes on her tablet. Louis was sure he was being recorded too, and probably observed from another room.

“Okay, now if you’ll get up and follow me, we need your fingerprints and mugshot.”

Louis was led to another room, where his fingers were individually scanned on a device. Then he was taken to another room, where a computer scanned his face and body creating a picture of him. When that was done the detective led him back down the hallway to the room, he had been in. As he walked Louis strained his eyes and focused his ears, to try to pick up on any signs of where Liam and Niall were. He heard and saw nothing.

He got back to the room and took a seat again. The detective stood in front of him on her tablet, reviewing something. Then she looked back up at Louis.

“I just need to ask you a few basic questions before Administrator Bray and his council gets here, then they’ll take over from here.”

“Wait!” Louis interrupted. He quickly tried to recover himself. “This may sound like a weird question…but who’s the president of the United States currently?”

The woman gave a questioning look as she assessed Louis from where he was standing. “President Flores. Why do you ask?”

Louis sighed with relief. It had worked, and there was no longer a President Hall. Now that he knew he had a case and evidence; it was time to try to quickly get someone else on his side. “Listen, I know we don’t have much time before the Administrator gets here. I need to tell you something very important, and I have evidence to prove it.” He didn’t even wait for the detective to respond before he continued. “NTTA has a secret program within it called TARC or the Timeless Artifacts Retrieval Commission. My brother and I are a part of it along with our parents. This organization has people go back in time and get footage. The problem is every time someone goes back in time, the timeline changes, but no one remembers it. No one remembers, except Administrator Bray. There are these things called Memory chips” Louis reached in his pocket and pulled the one he had out “they get stuck into the side of your neck and you can record thoughts and memories on them.”

The detective had rolled her tablet up and placed it in her back pocket. She had her hands on her hips and looked to be assessing the truth behind Louis’s words.

“Administrator Bray figured out if he recorded his thoughts before someone time traveled, then watched it afterward he could remember what changes have taken place. I’m talking about major changes too, from people being dead or alive, to who the president is. I have proof too.”

“Right….and how does this fit in with you breaking into the NTTA headquarters at two in the morning?”

“My friend Niall and I had to go back to 1964, where I was yesterday on a mission, and save a boy who had gotten killed because of me. His death caused the president to change, and we had to go back and fix that. I recorded my thoughts on a memory chip before I left though, and I have it here. All you have to do is gently push the spike into the side of your neck and you’ll see what I’m talking about.” Louis pleaded. He knew it would be hard to convince someone to stick a foreign object in their neck, but it was all he had. He nervously kept glancing towards the door, waiting for Administrator Bray and his council of idiots to burst through the door at any moment.

The detective took the memory chip from Louis’s hands and inspected it on her own. She looked up from the device and gave Louis a quizzical look. “So, if I understand you correctly, NTTA has a secret organization, and the leader of NTTA, Administrator Bray, knows these frequent time travels are causing events in time to change? And no one else remembers these changes without using this little chip?” She asked, inspecting the chip again.

“Yes! That’s correct, which is why it’s important we find a way to stop time travel and stabilize the timeline and stop Administrator Bray and his bad motives.”

The detective reached back and grabbed her tablet from her pocket and quickly started typing things away on it.

“Please, if you just look at the memory chip, all the evidence is literally in your hands.” Louis pleaded. “Please.”

The detective looked conflictingly at Louis and back at the memory chip before a knock at the door interrupted them. The door then opened, and another officer informed the women that Administrator Bray and the council were here, and ready to question Louis. The Detective nodded and placed the memory chip down on the table in front of Louis, before glancing back once, then walking out of the room.

Louis was beyond frustrated. He believed for a moment he may have convinced that detective to look at the evidence before they were interrupted. He wondered if Liam told his side of the story to the detective that interviewed him, or if he decided to stay quiet. Louis took the memory chip in front of his, and quickly put it back into his pocket before the Administrator walked in. If this was the only piece of evidence, he had against him, he was going to guard it with his life.

A minute later a police officer walked into the room and asked Louis to follow him to a different room. He was led back down the hallway he had been in earlier, and into a small conference room. As he was walking to the conference room, he saw the detective he had just spoken to, go into a room and shut the door. He assumed it was the room holding Niall or Liam.

He took a seat at the head of the table that seats ten. Administrator Bray was already sitting at the other end, and his council filling in the middle. There had been a seat open next to the Administrator, but Louis wanted to be as far away as possible from him.

“Mr. Tomlinson, I’m sure you have a wonderful explanation for why we’re all meeting here at three in the morning.” The Administrator said. He and the rest of the council looked disheveled. Their nice clothes were carelessly thrown on, and the women had their hair up, not even bothering to style it. Louis assumed they were woken up from a phone call and told to get to the station as soon as possible.

“I had an excellent reason, sir,” Louis said in a cocky tone, as he placed his hands interlocked together on the table.

“And what would that be?” The Administrator asked with a sly smile.

“I told you we needed to go back and save Alex, and when you ignored that, I took matters into my own hands.”

“Save Alex? Why would Alex need saving?” One of the council members asked.

“Because, originally, he had died during my first mission, but you don’t remember any of that, do you? It caused our current president to change to President Hall.” Louis tried to explain, even if he knew it was useless. The council members looked at each other than at him in confusion, while Administrator Bray, played coy.

“Louis, it is strictly forbidden and dangerous, to time travel without clearance, and a team to monitor everything. I thought after two years of training you would know better than this, but I guess you weren’t ready. You leave me no choice, but to fire you from the TARC team.” The Administrator said. “That is all you are dismissed, and free to go home.”

“That’s it? You’re just going to fire me, and let me go home? Do you think that’s going to shut me up? You barely even asked me any real questions.” Louis challenged.

“Mr. Tomlinson it is three in the morning, and we still have to talk with your brother, and make sure your friend who you told our confidential operations to, and took with you to the past, doesn’t talk. If you would like to further discuss the matter, we can meet in my office tomorrow. That is all for now.” He said, ending the discussion.

Louis was baffled but glad to be out of the Administrator’s presence. He quickly got up and left the room. He walked back down the hallway, and an officer directed him to a small receptionist type area he could wait in until Liam and Niall were done. He was thankful their parents weren’t called, but he knew tomorrow their parents would find out everything when they went to work. A place he no longer worked, and he assumed neither did Liam. This would make things more difficult, to stop things from the inside, and see what was going on. If there were more missions between now and next week, they would never know if the timeline changed again, and that terrified Louis.

Louis sat in a chair waiting, as he ate a chocolate bar from a vending machine. He felt a wave of exhaustion, both mentally and physically. He just wanted to make himself small and sleep everything away. At one point, he must have nodded off to sleep and woke up to someone gently shaking him awake. He cracked his eyes open, to see Liam and Niall standing above him. They both had anxious tired faces, and Niall kept looking between him and the door.

“Hey.” He mumbled.

“Hey, come on let’s get home,” Liam said. Louis slowly got up from the chair, stretching his muscles. His body felt like it had been hit by a bus. He felt sore and all of his limbs felt heavy. He needed to sleep for a long time when he got home, then he would deal with everything.

An officer drove the three of them back to the lab, to pick up Liam’s car. When the three of them were finally alone in the car, Louis turned around in the passenger seat to face Niall in the back.

“I’m so sorry I brought you into this. I should have never told you about TARC. How much trouble are you in?”

“First off, don’t apologize for telling me. You needed someone to vent to and what you’ve experienced in the last 24 hours is huge. We know you wouldn’t vent to your parents, and Liam was busy, and I’m always glad to be here for you. Which brings me to number two, which if you didn’t bring me into this, I asked to be brought into this. I wasn’t about to risk my best friend getting killed a hundred years ago, and never remember him. And Lastly, as long as I don’t talk, I’m not in trouble, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to be watched for a while. They threatened me with a lot of numbers equaling jail time, and fines that didn’t look too pretty.” Niall said, trying to brush it off as something light. His tired face and strained voice ruined the joking tone.

“I’m thankful to have you as a friend.”

“I’m thankful to have my time traveling kick-ass best friend too,” Niall said with a small laugh.

“And I’m thankful none of us are currently in jail,” Liam said from the driver’s seat.

“Well honestly it’s probably bound to happen sooner or later, with my curious ass, so I’m a little shocked it wasn’t today.” Louis jokes.

“Yeah well, be careful what you wish for. We might just end up in jail soon if taking down the Administrator goes wrong.” Liam’s voice was serious, all joking forgotten.

“Hey, we’ll figure it out, we always do,” Louis said quietly. Liam didn’t look convinced but nodded his head.

They dropped Niall off at his house, and then drove to their mom’s house. They parked on the street, and quietly entered the house through the front door. They both tried to be as quiet as a mouse, so they didn’t wake their mom and Peyton. Louis walked into the kitchen and got a glass of water while Liam looked for a snack in the pantry. The clock on the microwave said it was almost four in the morning.

“I’m going to bed, goodnight,” Louis said to Liam, before heading upstairs. He used the bathroom, brushed his teeth, before heading to his room. He changed into the comfiest pajamas he owned and crawled into his bed. To him, it had been days since he slept in his own bed when in 2064 it had been yesterday. He looked at his phone and saw he had a few missed texts from friends. It felt like days since he’d used his phone too. He set his phone on his nightstand and didn’t even bother setting an alarm. He wanted to sleep until he felt fully rested. He turned over to his side and pulled the covers over his shoulders. He closed his eyes, and in under a minute sleep consumed his.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We get the first mentions of Harry and Zayn in this chapter! Don't worry they'll be coming in soon.

Louis blinked his eyes open to the bright sun shining in through his curtains. He rolled over to face his nightstand and glance at his alarm clock. It was already past noon. He was surprised his mom or Peyton hadn’t woken him up yet, he was grateful they hadn’t though. He felt well-rested and recharged. He felt he had enough energy and motivation again, for the challenging task that laid ahead for him and Liam.

He grabbed his phone off the nightstand and scrolled through different apps. He did a quick google search to see President Flores was once again president, and he sighed with relief. Just to be sure, he googled President Altera, and no searches came back. He sat up straight in his bed and began rephrasing his search. Still no results. He googled all the presidents of the United States and scrolled through them in a fury. There was no president Altera.

Louis didn’t understand. That meant Alex’s relative never became president, but Louis didn’t know why or how. He went back in time and saved Alex, and everything else appeared to change back. Why did this change? Louis got out of bed and went to his desk to retrieve his tablet and hop back into his bed. He began looking up Alex. Louis was prepared for the worst. What if he went back to save his, for his to die some other way? Louis was never meant to be with Alex those four days, he could have messed so many things up in the timeline because Alex wasn’t where he was originally supposed to be.

It took a little scrolling, but he finally found the right Alex Hudson on a family tree website. According to the records, Alex married a girl named Gail in 1965 before divorcing a year later after having one child together. Louis wondered if Alex chose to marry Gail on his own free will. Louis scrolled down and found Alex had a partner named Tommy, who he eventually married when it became legal in 2015. In the 90s, it looked like Tommy legally adopted Alex’s daughter as one of his own and they both adopted a son of their own. Louis followed the lines of Alex’s adopted children, down through generations. He stopped at the newest entries. Some were just babies recently born. He scrolled up a few to the relatives around Louis’s age. There was a boy on the list who was twenty and lived in the Chicago area. The website said his name was Harry Styles. Louis counted it up, and Harry was Alex’s Great Great Great Great Granddaughter, biologically.

Louis wondered if Harry knew anything about Alex or if he had never heard of him. Louis thought of his own family. He wasn’t sure he heard many stories about relatives before his great grandparents, but thanks to the internet, information was easier to find. He could easily find old pictures, videos, and social media profiles of his past relatives. He had learned more from the internet about his past relatives, than his own parents. That wasn’t the case for all people though, maybe Harry’s parents told him all about Alex, or they at least might have other pictures or videos of Alex that they passed down. He thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to contact Harry and find out. He could go straight to Harry’s parents, but going to someone around his own age felt more comforting.

A knock on the door interrupted Louis’s research.

“Come in!” Louis shouted as he shut off the screen to his tablet. His mom opened the door and peeked his head in.

“Louis, are you alright? It’s past noon.” His mother said with concern.

“Yeah, just needed some rest is all. Time travel wore me out.” He said, which was the truth.

“Okay honey, well why don’t you come downstairs? Peyton’s making some lunch right now, and I spoke with your father, he’s coming by around two, so we can discuss what happened yesterday. And also, what happened last night? Your father and I both received phone calls from Administrator Bray last night and he gave a brief summary, but we’d like to hear from you and Liam what happened.”

This actually shocked Louis and gave him hope. He thought his parents would automatically believe the Administrator no questions asked. If Liam and him actually got a chance to explain themselves and show them the evidence, they might be able to convince them to be on their side. Louis knew hope was a dangerous thing, and to not get too excited, but at least it was something.

“Okay. I just need to take a shower, and then I’ll be down.” Louis replied, already getting out of bed.

“Alright, please don’t take too long. Lunch will be ready soon.” His mother said, before closing the door.

Louis went to his desk and opened the drawer he put the memory chip in the night before. It was still safe and sound. He wanted to see it for himself, so he took the small chip and inserted the point side into his neck. A second after it entered, all his memories and thoughts he had recorded came to life in his brain. It was like a slide show or movie playing and he was just the audience observing. It replayed what everything looked like and who everyone was. It was an incredible piece of technology that, if used right, would be great in the future. He just wished Administrator Bray wasn’t benefiting from it.

When the chip was done playing, he removed it from his neck and stuck it back in its previous spot on his desk. He went to his closet and picked out a pair of workout shorts and a t-shirt, before heading to the bathroom he and Liam shared down the hall.

Before he reached the bathroom, Liam came out of his room and intercepted him in the hall.

“Hey, come here a sec.” He said waving him into his bedroom.

“Hang on, let me put this down.” He ran to the bathroom and put his clothes on the closed toilet lid, before going back into the hallway, and opening Liam’s slightly jarred door.

“What’s up?” He asked, closing the door behind him. Liam was sitting at his desk, with his hands over something.

“Okay, I didn’t tell you this yesterday when we were driving back home because it was late, and it had been a long day…” he said quietly. Louis walked closer to hear him. “But, while you and Niall were traveling back to 1964, I stole these.” He uncovered his hand to reveal a pile of little gold memory chips.

“Memory chips?” Louis asked.

“Yeah, but not just any memory chips. I broke into Administrator Bray’s office and found his stash of memory chips. I haven’t watched them yet, so I don’t know what’s on there, but now we have evidence.” He said excitedly.

“This is fantastic!” Louis said with a grin. “I have evidence too. Before I time-traveled back, I went to the science part of the lab and recorded my thoughts on a memory chip. It proves less than twelve hours ago; we had a different president. I have the memory chip in my room. We can show all this to mom and dad.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. I already talked to mom this morning, and she agreed to hear us out when dad gets here, but I could already tell she was leaning towards the Administrator’s side. It’s going to take a lot to sway them. Even with the evidence, we can’t guarantee they’re going to agree with our viewpoint of stopping time travel.” Liam argued. 

“There was a detective last night at the station. I tried to explain everything to her and get her to watch the memory chip. I’m convinced she was about to, before the administrator and his jolly old council came to ruin the party.” He said sourly. If mom and dad don’t believe us, maybe the police will. Probably not all of them, because I’m sure some are friends with Administrator Bray, but maybe that detective would.”

“That is true. At least we have options. If those don’t work though, I don’t know where we go from there. We’re both adults, but we’re both young, and since we’ve been officially fired from NTTA last night, that’s not going to look good on our parts.”

“Yeah, and now we aren’t on the inside anymore, but we should talk to the other time travelers, Arabella and Declan.”

Arabella was a transgender female, who started as an intern for NTTA in the engineering department, before getting offered a permanent job with NTTA, and assigned to the TARC program. She worked alongside their dad, who always talked highly of her. She had started time traveling around the same time Liam started, so she would have seen the timeline change for the past few years. Declan was in his thirties and was the first-time traveler for the TARC program.

“Arabella probably knows a lot, and could maybe be convinced to help, but I think Declan’s a lost cause. He’s too close to the Administrator and I’m fairly sure he has a thing for one of the council members. There’s no way we’re going to get him to talk out against them.”

“You’re probably right about Declan, but we should at least try. I think we have a shot with Arabella. I could tell in the last year, he hasn’t been as happy at work. I could be wrong, but I don’t think he’s happy about everything changing either.” Louis assumed.

“Well we have till next Saturday, till the next time we travel, so we need to talk to all these people this week. Getting one more person on our side will help but getting multiple people will strengthen our case.”

“Liam, Louis, come down for lunch,” Peyton called from downstairs. Louis backed away from Liam and towards the door.

“I gotta take a quick shower, tell them I’ll be down soon. We’ve got this Liam; I believe in us.” Louis ended on a positive note, before walking out of the room and to the bathroom.

“He turned the shower on the hottest it would go, before stepping in and letting the steam consume his body. It burned like hell, but he needed it. He needed to bring himself down from the clouds, and into the reality, he lived in. Which happened to be a living hell at the moment. When his body got used to the scolding hot, he began to feel the muscles in his shoulders relax, and some of the stress weighing him down washed away. He washed his hair and body quickly. He thought about shaving but decided to put it off till tomorrow. He wasn’t going to leave the house today.

When he got out of the shower, his body glowed red as he dried off. He brushed his teeth and dried his hair, before slipping on the clothes he had brought with him. He wasn’t going to worry about styling his hair, It was just his family.

When he walked downstairs, his mom, Peyton, and Liam were all sitting at the small table in the kitchen, eating whatever Peyton had prepared.

“There he is, finally deciding to join us,” Peyton said as he pulled out the chair next to him for Louis. “I grilled some burgers for lunch. They’re on the counter along with condiments.”

“Thanks, I’ll make myself a plate.”

He grabbed a plate and sat in the seat next to Peyton. They all made small talk, and it was nice to feel like a normal family when Louis felt like they weren’t. If only Peyton knew what his family got up to, he thought. Louis could feel the tension with his mother, so he tried to keep his contributions to the conversation, as light as possible. When they were all finished, Louis helped Peyton clean the grill, while Liam helped their mom clear dishes, and load the dishwasher.

When Louis walked back inside, the doorbell rang, and his mother was already walking down the hall to answer the door. Louis heard his father’s voice before he saw him, as he walked into the hallway to greet him. Liam was already there making his way to the family room, where his mom and dad were heading.

“Excuse me, I asked Peyton to go to the store, while we talk, and I just need to make sure he’s leaving soon before we get into things.” His mother said leaving the room.

Liam sat on the loveseat, and Louis sat in the seat next to him, while their father sat on the side of the couch closest to them.

“Wait, before we get started, I need to go grab something from my room,” Louis said before getting off the loveseat. He heard behind him Liam say he needed to get something too and heard him follow him up the stairs. They both went to their rooms and grabbed the memory chips they had before meeting back in the hallway, at the top of the stairs.

“We should wait to show them the chips from the Administrator until we watch them first. For all, we know they could all be blank. We also don’t know what could be on them. It’s better we find out first before we show them. We have the one I have though, and we know that has solid proof on it.” He said holding the tiny chip up in his hand.

“Yeah, that’s a good call. I'll put these backs, you go ahead and go downstairs.” Liam said, turning back to his room.

Louis walked back down the stairs, putting the tiny chip in his pocket. He knew if his father saw it, he would know what it was instantly and ask questions. He didn’t want to have to bring it out until he and Liam were well into their explanation of everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. He knew he would have to explain himself first, without the help of Liam, and disappoint his parents with how he fucked up in the first place. At least he could say he learned and grew from his mistake, which is something parents always tell you to do.

Liam came down the stairs, at the same time their mom entered the room as he joined Louis again on the loveseat, while their mom sat on the couch, a good distance from their dad. The air seemed tense and awkward for a moment as everyone looked at each other waiting for someone to speak. Louis was still gathering all the words he wanted to say in his head. He knew they had to approach this subject gently and with care. The lab was their parents' lives. Louis was almost certain, he and Liam were an afterthought or a drunken mistake after a few too many glasses drank at a holiday work party. Their parents were too focused on their careers at the time to plan a family, but they decided to take on the challenge anyway.

Liam cleared his throat trying to break the thick tension in the room. He made eye contact with him and he gave an encouraging nod for him to start.

“Right….so Louis and I have something we need to bring to your attention, and we hope you will listen with an open mind. What we are about to say you probably won’t agree with, but we have proof to back things up.”

Their parents both wore confused looks on their faces, but their dad nodded to continue so Liam did. “Everything with TARC and NATTA is not what you believe them to be, and it’s not your fault for not knowing this. Only the time travelers and Administrator Bray, as far as we know, realize the repercussions of time traveling.”

“What are you on about?” Their mother interjected from his spot on the couch. His expression was guarded, and Louis was already worried they were going to get nowhere.

“Every time we time travel the timeline changes, but only the time travelers realize it, to everyone else it’s like the timeline has always been this way,” Louis interjected. Liam gave a glare for jumping ahead of his gentle approach, but he thought it was better to just rip the band-aid off.

“Uh-huh…. What exactly do you mean the timeline changes? That’s impossible, it’s your brother's job to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Their dad said. Louis watched as he gave a sideways glance to their mom before focusing his attention back on Louis.

Liam jumped back in. “Watching the timeline isn’t a real fucking job. I tried to tell you that years ago and you wouldn’t listen to me.” His voice began to rise before he took a few breaths to calm down before continuing. “The timeline does change, but the only way to monitor its changes is by recording your current memories onto a memory chip before someone time travels which up until yesterday, only Administrator Bray knew about.”

“If that’s true then why did the other time travelers not speak up? Surely Arabella, Declan, and Zayn would say something if the timeline really did change and they were supposedly the only one that could remember.” Their mom spoke up, her voice hard, trying to leave no room to argue.

“Look there are many things you don’t know, that Administrator Bray has covered up and has kept from you. I wanted to come forward sooner, but it’s not that easy. He has things on all of us and he’s using it to his advantage.” Liam tried to reason, but his expression showed he was already preparing to lose the battle. Louis on the other hand was repeating what Liam just said in his head. He hadn’t said anything before about Administrator Bray blackmailing him. His expression matched the same confusion his parents' faces held.

“Now you are claiming Administrator Bray is blackmailing you and the other time travelers? Son, I don’t know what’s gotten into you and your brother, but these accusations are ludicrous, and I don’t want to hear any more of them. We are here to talk about the ridiculous stunt you and Louis pulled on Saturday and how stupid and reckless it was.”

Louis and Liam both gave each other defeated looks and prepared themselves for the long lectures that laid ahead of them. Louis knew this was how it was going to go; they would get shut down before they even got to explain all the details. However, even though he was frustrated with his parents he found himself mad at Liam too. He knew he still didn’t know Liam’s time-traveling story, but he thought he would have at least told his if Administrator Bray was blackmailing him and the other time travelers. This is more evidence to be used against him. Louis felt like they were on the same side, but now he felt like they were fighting the same battle on their own and just using each other as pawns. They were going to get nowhere if this continued. They needed to lay all the information they had out for each other along with the memory chips that they hoped held the most concrete evidence and together end time travel once and for all.

“Louis, we demand a full explanation for your actions. We were angry, but less shocked when your brother went rogue on his mission, but we expected true professionalism from you.” His mother’s scolding voice cut through his thoughts making him sit up straighter on the couch.

“I’m sorry, and I can’t say that enough. I regret my actions the first time around, but I’m not sorry about stealing the time machine and going back. There was an innocent boy that got killed because of my foolishness and I had to make things right. He had a life that he was meant to fully live, he didn’t deserve to have it cut short.”

“I don’t care what happened, that doesn’t give you the excuse to break the law and jeopardize all of our jobs Louis.” His father spoke over his mom who was about to interject.

 _And there it was_ , this was about their jobs more than anything else and their precious allegiance to Administrator Bray. Louis felt a bitter taste rising in his mouth, and he swallowed it down with a grimace. Louis would agree in this situation he was dumb and selfish, but putting his parent’s jobs on the line was low on the list of reasons why he was selfish. There were much bigger reasons that overshadowed that. Their parents were such a prominent fixture to the lab, Louis was sure it was nearly impossible for them to be fired. If Liam wasn’t fired for whatever it was, he did, and supposedly it was bad, then Louis’s actions wouldn’t have affected their job at all.

He crossed his arms over his chest and reclined into the couch cushions. “Maybe you, working for that villain wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.” The words were out before Louis could stop them and he didn’t even regret them. His parents both looked appalled and Liam looked shocked before a smirk played at his lips. Louis was done with this conversation. He quickly got up from the couch and nearly ran straight for the stairs before anyone could stop him. He heard his parents yelling after him by the time he had already reached the top step. He makes it to his bedroom, shutting and locking the door behind his and resting his back against the frame, sliding down to the floor. He tilted his head up to rest on the door, looking up at the ceiling, silently praying for a miracle or some light shining a way out of this clusterfuck of a mess.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket interrupting his moment of peace. He took out the paper-thin device and unfolded it revealing a message from Niall. He unlocked his phone, opening the message, and read it before quickly typing out a reply telling him to come over. Niall just wanted to know if there were any updates and Louis wished he had better things to tell him than the shitstorm that just erupted downstairs. As much as he didn’t want to drag Niall into this any more than he already has, he’s glad he has someone to talk to about everything other than Liam who’s apparently not forthcoming with all the information. His phone buzzed again with Niall’s reply saying he was on his way as he went back to silently praying and basking in the peace before they started watching the other memory chips.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should note Liam's secret he's hiding is the main story of the second book so that won't be explained in this one. I'm halfway through the second book and if people want me to post that I can after I'm finished with this one. The first half of the second book is all Liam's perspective on his last time travel mission with Zayn so yes all the Ziam.

Louis felt the door he was resting on dig into his back as someone tried to open it, a half an hour later. His body was aching from sitting awkwardly on the floor for so long, but he didn’t have the energy to carry himself to the bed. He stood up away from the door letting Niall open the door all the way. His blonde hair hung wet in his face as water dripped down onto his shoulders onto his already soaked shirt.

“FYI it’s raining, no hurling a shit ton of water from the sky at a rapid speed,” Niall said shaking his hair out like a dog, effectively flinging water everywhere.

“At least it’s raining like it’s supposed to and not snowing in July because of some consequence to our time traveling.”

“Alright, you make a point. It still could have been courteous to wait till I was in your house though before it released Lake Michigan down on my head.” Niall flopped down on Louis’s bed disregarding the fact that he was still wet. Louis grimaced at the thought of his comforter getting wet but let it go and went to sit next to him. “So, you going to tell me why you were sitting on the floor and why your parents glared daggers at me more than normal when I walked through the door?”

“First off they don’t glare daggers at you, they like you honestly, maybe less now, but still, and Liam and I tried to tell them about Administrator Bray and why everything happened, and it went awfully.” Louis looked down at Liam from his sitting position as he laid on his back looking up at him.

“I’m taking it didn’t go well then?”

“No, it went horribly though I expected it to go this way. What I didn’t expect however is Liam saying Administrator Bray is blackmailing him. He didn’t say what he has on him, but it must be big if he’s waited this long to say anything about it.”

“Liam getting blackmailed? Since when does Liam let anything get in his way? Do you have any idea what it could be?” Niall said running his hands through his wet hair.

“I know something happened during his last mission, which is why he doesn’t time travel anymore, but he never told me what it was. That might have to wait though, we need to look at the other memory chips Liam got and build up our evidence. Then we need to talk with the other time-travelers and get them on our side. If my parents won’t help us, then we need to build our own case and get more people on our side before we take this back to the police. Just know you can get out of this at any time, I don’t want to drag you into this mess.”

“Oh, don’t worry I’m already in this mess and I’ve already been threatened by one of your lab people to keep my mouth shut at the police station. Quite frankly that made me hate them more, so I’ll do whatever it takes to get rid of them.” He said with a smirk.

Louis rolled his eyes and was about to respond when there was a knock at his door. They both turned to stare at the closed door, Louis taking a deep breath, before moving to open it with caution. He hoped it wasn’t one of his parents, though he knew they probably wouldn’t talk to him right now with Niall over. He opened the door a crack revealing a tired-looking Liam on the other side. He gave a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes, while Louis moved out of the way to let him in.

“Hey, Niall.” He said making his way to Louis’s desk chair.

“Liam.” Niall returned with a small half-assed wave.

“So, things didn’t go well…” Liam said, looking to Louis as he tapped his fingers on his desk.

“Yeah, I know, but it doesn’t matter we can still do this without them. Do you have the memory chips with you?”

Liam reached into his pocket and dug around until he revealed five gold memory chips sitting in the palm of his hand. “I’ve been tempted to watch them, but I knew I should wait for you.”

He stretched his hand out allowing Louis to pick up two from the pile. He ran his thumb over the gold spike that could easily pierce into his skin if he pushed down.

“I want in on the action, give me one.” Niall sat up and maneuvered his way to the edge of the bed, taking his own memory chip from Liam’s hand. “So how do these things work?” He inspected the small object in his hand while glancing between Liam and Louis.

“You insert the spike into the side of your neck and the memory will be projected into your mind. Through your eyes, you’ll just see the memory as if you were watching a movie.” Liam said as he walked over towards Niall. He smirked before taking the chip sitting in Niall’s hand and puncturing his neck with it. Louis and Liam both watched as his eyes glazed over and his mouth hung open in shock.

“We don’t know how long each of these chips is, they could be minutes or hours long.” Louis walked up next to where Liam stood in front of Niall and they both observed his face, looking for any signs of discomfort.

“Well might as well watch ours and then regroup,” Liam said plopping back down into the desk chair.

“Alright but if one of us is done for a while before the other, make notes and type things down so we can go over everything afterward.” Louis took a seat on the floor by Liam’s feet, resting his back against his bed.

“Got it, captain.” He saluted him before pushing one of the pins into his neck becoming entranced.

Louis hated the fact that you couldn’t stop watching a chip once it was in or communicate with someone while watching a chip. It was definitely a flaw the lab needed to fix before they could ever become commercial, but Louis figured that was still a few years off anyways. He lifted the hand that held the chip in it up to rest on his knees and inspected it at eye level for the last time before taking a deep breath and inserting it into his neck.

A pristine image of the lab came to life in his mind as if he were standing in the lab currently. However, the lab was slightly different than the one Louis had become accustomed to, but he couldn’t put his finger on what was different. Administrator Bray's voice was heard saying “January 14th, 2062.” A second later people appeared into the memory filling various stations in the main room of the lab. Louis recognized a lot of these people but didn’t know many of their names. There were two people that immediately grabbed his attention out of the corner of his eye. His parents. They were by the double doors leading into the main room talking to each other. Talking was not out of the usual, but their hands were intertwined and dangling between them. A few seconds later his mom leaned in and gave his dad a quick kiss on the lips before untangling their hands and heading out the door to his side of the lab. The memory panned over paying close attention to a few other people in the lab before ending all together two minutes later.

When the memory went blank all of Louis’s own thoughts came rushing to the front of his brain. He reached up to his neck and pulled out the chip, fully returning his eyesight back to his room.

“Oh my god…” He whispered softly to himself trying to comprehend everything he just saw. The memory was only two years old and it either meant his parents were never divorced in that timeline or that his mom was cheating on Payton with his dad.

“Intense memory?” Liam asked looking down at him in concern. Louis took note that his face seemed drained of color.

“Yeah, kind of. It definitely raises some more questions. What about yours?”

“Nope. Everything seemed normal in mine, nothing to report.” He said, not making eye contact with him.

“Then why do you look like you’ve just witnessed something horrifying or shocking?” He tried to put on his best questioning face, but he wouldn’t even look his way.

“Oh no that’s just me showing worry for your friend here who’s starting to drool on himself.”

Louis quickly whipped his body around to face the bed where Niall still sat watching the chip with his eyes and mouth still hung open. Louis moved closer to him and realized his whole body was beginning to shake and tremble.

“Liam, we need to get that memory chip out of him.” He was already extending his arm towards Niall’s neck when Liam grabbed it and pushed it aside.

“Wait! We can’t just pull it out of his neck in the middle of a memory, we don’t know what it could do.”

“Well, it’s better than him going into a full-blown panic attack!” Louis grabbed Niall’s shaking hand and held it in his as he watched his breathing pick up and become uneven.

“Mom would know what to do, but if she knows where the chips came from, she’ll definitely take them away.”

“That might not be a bad thing if she actually watched them.” Louis mauled the idea over in his head for a moment wondering if telling their mom was worth the risk.

“No, it’s a bad idea. She won’t look at the chips anyways she’ll just give them back to Administrator Bray and probably disown us. We need to get that chip out of him, we're wasting time.” Before Louis had time to respond Liam was already yanking the memory chip from Niall’s neck. Niall reached up and cupped his neck where the memory chip had been with his shaking hands as he blinked his eyes rapidly and shook his head. 

“Niall, can you hear me? Are you okay?” Louis questioned still holding his hand in his, rubbing the back of it soothingly with his thumb.

Niall looked down and took a deep breath before slowly nodding his head. He slowly lifted his head and made eye contact with Louis before looking over to Liam then back to Louis.

“You didn’t make it back from 1964 in the memory. You had gotten killed with Alex and Liam had to bring your body back to the lab.” A few tears slipped from his eyes and he quickly brushed them away. “It was so real like I actually saw my best friend dead and just lying there…and oh god seeing your family…”

His sentence broke off with a choke sobbed and Louis and Liam sat on both of his sides trying to comfort him. Liam rested a comforting hand on Niall’s shoulder while Louis rubbed soothing circles into his back. Another torpedo of guilt sunk into Louis’s stomach at ever bringing Niall into this in the first place. He didn’t need to see or live through the horrors that he and Liam already had, but it was too late now.

“I’m sorry you had to see that but remember that isn’t this timeline and it never will be and…wait a minute…” Louis took a deep breath trying to capture his racing thoughts as they zipped around his mind like cars on an interstate. Niall and Liam both looked at his expectantly waiting for him to continue. “If that was on a memory chip…then that means someone else time traveled between when I got back and when we broke into the lab. But if I had died in that memory then were, they trying to save me…or something else?”

“This makes no fucking sense anymore.” Niall buried his head back in his hands and groaned.

“…You guys were never meant to see that one, I should have watched these before I let you guys see them,” Liam said quietly more to himself than to them. “I didn’t exactly tell you the truth before about coming back to rescue. The first time I had been too late…I brought your body back to the lab, but I was already planning on how to fix it. Administrator Bray must have recorded it on a memory chip when I got back before I quickly turned around and headed back to 1964 a few minutes earlier so that I would be on time to save you this time around.” By this point, he had lost all color in his face and he watched as his body slightly trembled. Niall looked just as drained of color as Louis assumed, he was probably thinking back to the memory he just watched.

They all sat in silence for a minute left with the silent horrors of their own thoughts and guilt slowly eating away at them.

“Thank you,” Louis whispered into the silence. “For coming back for me.”

“I’d do it a thousand times over if I had to.” He replied equally as quiet. The tension in the air seemed to release slowly like all of them had exhaled at once and could now move on.

“Liam, I know you’re trying to protect me, but you have to stop keeping secrets. We’re going to get nowhere like this.”

“I know, I know I’m sorry.”

“Wait so what did you guys see?” Niall budded in looking between the two of them.

“In my memory, our parents were still together? Or moms cheating on Peyton with our dad? That part of the memory wasn’t clear.”

“And what about yours?” Niall turned to ask Liam, who was already shaking his head.

“Mine was just the normal current timeline, there was nothing different.”

“Well, at least we have two drastically different memories we can use as evidence. Now, what’s the next step here?” Niall asked, looking between Louis and Liam.

“We have to get the other time travelers on our side, which means we have to talk to Arabella, Declan, and Zayn.”

“We don’t have to talk to Zayn, Arabella and Declan should be enough,” Liam interjected.

“Why the hell wouldn’t we try to get your old traveling partner on our side? They fired him when they demoted you, he probably hates them just as much as we do.”

“Yeah but it’s not that simple…”

“Look I don’t know what happened between you two.” Louis interrupted. “But you need to put it aside for now because we need him if we're actually going to pull this off.”

“Fine, but we visited him last” Liam sighed with a huff.


	19. Chapter 19

The next day Louis and Liam found themselves entering a small coffee shop sandwiched between buildings on a busy street of downtown Chicago. It was a rarity to still find a locally owned coffee shop when most were run out of business long ago when the monopolizing coffee corporations took over for good. Louis was pretty sure this was the only locally owned one that still existed in Chicago today. This was the shop Arabella said to meet her at for morning coffee. Their attempts to reach Declan were unsuccessful so they decided a little house call would be in order after coffee.

They weaved through the morning rush of people to claim their own spot in the line that was slowing inching forward. Arabella was already sitting at a small round table against one of the walls of the shop. She gave a small wave at them as she sipped on her coffee. Her long black hair laid gracefully over her shoulders and stood out against the yellow top he wore.

Arabella started her time travel training a year after Liam did. She was a high-ranking soldier in the army that got picked to join TARC to broaden the range of time travelers to use at their disposal. Arabella was in her early thirties making her one of the older travelers on the team. She usually either traveled alone or with Declan when she needed a partner, while Liam would travel with Zayn. Louis had wondered who he would travel with on missions that required more than one person, but that thought seemed irrelevant now.

Louis and Liam made their way over to the table both carefully tried not to burn their hands with the scolding hot coffee threatening to slosh over the edge of their too-filled blue mugs. They took their seats on either side of Arabella. Louis glanced around surveying the surrounding coffee drinkers, hoping they were secluded enough from eavesdroppers.

“Hey, guys it’s good to see you! It’s weird not seeing you both in the lab every day.” Arabella said breaking the awkward silence first. Louis and Liam had both talked on the way over about their theories on what Arabella did or didn’t know about their recent after-hour adventures. The people at the lab could have already fed her lies and pitted her against them.

“Yeah, it’s good to see you too. How are things going at the lab?” Liam supplied conversationally.

“Oh, you know, same old, same old.” She said in a strained voice. Her eyes cast down to her coffee mug. Louis and Liam shared a quick look before returning their attention to her.

“Look we asked to meet with you because…well we have some things to ask and show you.” Louis knew the casual conversation was trivial at this point. They were here for a reason and they didn’t have much time to waste.

“Alright ask away I’m an open book.” Is what came out of her mouth, but her eyes had a guarded look in them as they shifted back and forth between Liam and Louis before finally settling on Louis.

“When you time travel you remember and see when things change in the timeline when you return and no one else remembers.” It wasn’t a question but a statement that Louis hope couldn’t be denied.

Arabella looked increasingly more uncomfortable and turned her attention to Liam. “What makes you bring this up now? You’ve known about this for years and you still pretended to monitor the timeline even though we both knew that was a bullshit job.”

“Because now there’s a game-changer,” Liam said as he placed one of the memory chips down on the table in front of her. Liam and Louis had known about the memory chips for a while since their mom was working on the project, however, it wasn’t a well-known project among the rest of the lab.

“What is that?” Arabella picked up the chip inspecting it then set it back down.

“It’s a memory chip, otherwise known as evidence for what the three of us already know. All you have to do is insert in your neck.” Liam explained pushing the memory chip closer towards Arabella. The chip Liam had picked to show he was the one Louis recorded before he went back to save Alex.

Louis and Liam both watched Arabella anxiously as she watched the chip, her eyes glazed over. When the chip ended, she was breathing heavily, and she ripped the chip out of her neck and slammed it to the table. She looked to Louis like he had all the answers before shaking her head.

“We really have proof…” She said barely above a whisper. “I’ve tried so many times to get someone to listen to me, but everyone acts like they don’t know what I’m talking about, even the Administrator.”

“The Administrator was the only one who did know what was going on thanks to these memory chips, he’s impeccably good at lying though,” Liam explained.

“Alright so what do you plan on doing with this then?”

“Ah that’s where you come into play,” Louis said with a smile. Louis and Liam explained Louis’s time-traveling experience and how they ended up to this moment. Arabella nodded along with a mixture of sympathy and anger permanently etched on her face. “We want to go to the police with everything and the more people that come forward with us the stronger our case will be. I know this puts your job on the line, but every time someone time travels the timeline gets fucked even more. This can’t keep going on.”

“You’re exactly right screw my job; this is more important. I’m in.”

***

They stood outside what they were told was Declan’s apartment building on the north side of the city. Louis glanced around at the chaos that was downtown Chicago. He regretted not coming downtown more often and staying in his little bubble of the suburbs. Liam rang the bell to Declan’s apartment on a small monitor screen connected to the brick wall. Declan’s face appeared on the screen moments later, first taken back then nodding as he pushed the button letting them in.

They climbed the stairs up to his apartment and were both met with him, in a bathrobe leaning up against the door frame.

“To what do I owe the honor of both Tomlinson siblings at my door? Running an errand for your parents?” He said jokingly as he swung the door open wider and beckoned them inside. The apartment was a small studio but looked new and well organized. Every surface was pristine and not an item was out of place.

“Sorry to drop in like this unannounced. We would have called ahead if this wasn’t so urgent.” Louis said making his way over to the couch. He figured sitting down for this conversation would help it go more smoothly. He and Liam were feeling confident after how things went with Arabella. They just needed this one last piece to really kick things into motion.

Declan took a seat on his bed facing the couch gesturing for him to continue. So, he does. He and Liam go through the whole spiel they gave Arabella, the look on Declan’s face never leaving a cold glare. Liam extended his hand with the memory chip resting in his palm towards Declan. Louis could have sworn he heard him snarl as he knocked the chip hard out of Liam’s hand, sending it flying towards the kitchen on the opposite side of the room. Louis immediately jumped off the couch running to find it as Liam stood stunned in place.

“Both of you get out,” Declan yelled causing Liam to flinch back. Louis crawled around the wooden floors looking for the small piece hoping it wasn’t broken. He began to hear Liam and Declan’s voices both escalate as Liam tried to ask what the hell just happened.

“No more! We’re done talking about this, get out!”

“Not until you at least tell me why. You have to know what they’re doing is wrong. Your partner Arabella even knows it!”

“You are all traitors. Traitors to the lab, traitors to your country, and traitors to your family. I can’t imagine your parents would be proud if they knew what their bratty kids were up to right now. Instead of having the Administrator arrested it should be you two!”

Louis saw the memory chip and grabbed it just as Liam and Declan began truly yelling at each other and stepping closer to get into each other’s faces. He quickly moved across the room grabbing Liam’s arm and pulling him back. “Enough, we’ll go.”

He dragged Liam to the door as Declan still yelled things at them. Liam almost turned back around once to go fight him but thankfully the door was only a few strides across the room and then a barrier was put between the two. Liam was seething as they walked down the sidewalk towards their car. He could tell by the way his fists were balled at his sides and the way he kept taking deep breaths that turned into deep sighs and sometimes low rumbles as if he were trying to growl.

“Okay so that didn’t go as well as we had hoped, and I’m not quite sure the reasoning behind that reaction, but we still have one other person on our side. Now if we get Zayn on our side that’ll still mean there’s four of us.” Louis tried to reason as they continued to walk down the street toward their car.

“No, we are not going to talk to Zayn today. Not after dealing with that asshole. I can’t take it anymore today, we’re going home.” He said leaving no room for discussion as he opened the car door then slammed it shut. Louis followed softly behind him.

***

That evening Louis sat in his room, his head swirling with everything that’s plagued his mind the last few days. He never could have imagined something he had been training and working towards for two years could have resulted in something he had grown to hate. Not a day went by where Alex didn’t cross his mind. He wondered how many days would go by where this would be the case. He was only eighteen and yet so many unpredictable and traumatic events had happened in such a short amount of time. 

He got up from his bed and grabbed his laptop off his desk, bringing it back over to his bed with his. He had gone back and forth about if he should look Alex’s relatives up for a while. A part of his knew it wouldn’t help him in getting over Alex, but another part of his just wanted to know if his bloodline was doing well for itself. He typed _Alex Hudson Chicago IL_ into the search bar and watched the results instantly pop up. Louis had been afraid to google his again after doing so last time and finding Alex had been murdered. He knew Niall and his had stopped that, but that didn’t mean Alex hadn’t wound up dead early from some other type of accident.

He clicked on one of the family tree websites. Louis knew this cost money, but it would be the easiest way to get answers without having to go down a rabbit hole on the internet trying to piece things together. He purchased a limited-time account and pulled back up Alex’s profile on the site. There was a picture of Alex a little older with his hair styled differently standing next to another man and two children. Alex was mesmerized by the image and the domesticity of it. He scrolled down and saw one of Alex’s children had written a bio under Alex’s profile.

_My sister and I’s father Alex was the best dad we could have asked for. For the time being gay was very taboo and our fathers had to live a quiet life in the public eye until they were much older. When it became legal in 2016 our fathers were able to get married at the courthouse surrounded by all their immediate family at age 71 (Tommy) and 73 (Alex). Our father Tommy died first at eighty-five of a stroke. In 2036 at the age of 93 our dear dad Alex passed away from cancer surrounded by family and friends. He had two children Henry (me) and Holly. I had three kids. My sister had five children of his own. And we’ve both been blessed with many grandkids._

\- _Henry Hudson_

Louis was captivated by the response. He felt like he could imagine Alex’s life playing out from his sons’ description of it. While a twinge of jealousy hit him, he was also glad Alex was able to be himself and find a great family of his own. Louis clicked on the different profiles following Alex’s tree down the line through his children, grandchildren, and so on. The last entry was of Alex’s great great great great granddaughter Harry Styles.

He clicked on the profile and a picture of a boy around Louis’s age came up. He was covered in tattoos on his arms and had long brown hair the same color as Alex. There was no information other than the picture, so Louis opened a new tab and searched the boy's name. Instantly various social media profiles and YouTube videos of the boy popped up. Louis clicked on the first one he was. The boy instantly appeared on the screen wearing a snapback and white T-shirt showing his tattoos off. The boy was an artist and began painting while he also talked to his viewers about what he had been up to and answering some of his fan’s questions. Louis scrolled down to see he had over twelve million subscribers with tons of people commenting and liking his videos.

Louis clicked back and saw Harry had his own website and clicked on that. He maneuvered the mouse over to the _about_ tab and clicked. He was intrigued by this beautiful boy who was connected to Alex and existed here in this time period.

_Hi guys my name is Harry Styles! I am twenty and a tattoo artist in Chicago IL. To see my portfolio and learn more about the shop I work at visit my Instagram or click the link down below. I also make YouTube videos vlogging and making some badass art! If you have any questions for me or art requests shoot me an email._

He quickly scanned through the about page absorbing the information then quickly began clicking on links to learn all he could about Harry.

An hour passed by and Louis had scrolled through all of Harry’s social media looking at his tattoo work and art. He was an incredible artist and he was gaining increasing popularity for his work. He also had a fun and energetic personality that shined brightly in the videos he made. Louis found himself watching video after video of his. Time flew by but nothing else seemed to matter other than the beautiful sunshine on the other side of the screen.

Louis had thought about getting a tattoo but with recently turning eighteen his bigger focus at the time had been on his first-time travel mission. Now as he looked at the art Harry made and the ink painting his skin, Louis craved being ink and permanently marked too, but only if by Harry. He looked up the shop info and found it was only a few towns over from where he lived. When all this chaos is over, _I should go visit him and get a tattoo_ he thought to himself.

He clicked the online booking link and booked the first open appointment Harry had which happened to be in a few days. He knew he should wait but he had to meet Alex’s relative. He reasoned with himself it was a way of closure to help seal the gaping wound he hadn’t had time to process and bandage yet. Louis put his laptop back on his desk and glanced at the clock already reading one a.m. He needed to get to bed he thought to himself climbing back into bed and turning off his bedside lamp. Tomorrow was a day closer to all this being over.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time Traveler Avengers Unite!

Louis woke up later than he meant to be sleeping close to nine a.m. When he waltzed down the stairs and to the coffee machine to get a cup of liquid motivation, he noticed Liam wasn’t up yet. He poured himself some coffee and climbed back upstairs to bang on his door for him to get up.

“Liam wake up we’ve got a ton of things we gotta do today like talk to your ex-work partner.” He said through the door. The door cracked open and a disheveled Liam appeared through the crack.

“You know maybe just having Arabella on our side’s enough. We don’t really need to go bother Zayn over this.” He said fidgeting by the door.

“Uh yes, we very much need Zayn. We need any other time traveler we can get who knows what’s going on to come forward if we’re going to make a solid case and you know that. I don’t know what happened between you two, but you need to grow a set of balls and grow up.”

“Fine, we're only doing this because I hate Administrator Bray more right now.” He huffed then shut his door to get dressed.

When they were both dressed and ready, they got back and Liam’s car and drove to Liam’s Zayn’s apartment. The car ride was silent as songs from one of Liam’s playlists filled the car. Louis noticed how tightly Liam was gripping the steering wheel turning his knuckles white. He decided not to comment on it. They pulled into the complex parking lot located under a busy overpass.

“You know which one it is right?” Louis asked assuming he already knew the answer.

“Yep, I used to come here a lot when we weren’t working.”

They went to the main door and then down the stairs to one of the bottom units. Liam stopped in front of the door and didn’t proceed to move so Louis took initiative and knocked. They could hear a dog begin to bark as footsteps made their way closer to the door. The door swung open and a small gray Pitbull ran up to them jumping up to greet Liam first and then Louis.

“Hey Stella, I missed you, sweet girl,” Liam said petting the dog as her body excitedly shook.

“Liam? And Louis what are you both doing here?” Zayn asked directing it to Liam while glancing at Louis every few moments.”

“Look I know we’re not really on speaking terms right now, but we’ve got some important shit to tell you and we could really use your help.” Liam reasoned stepping closer to the now door. Stella continued to circle him and nudge his hand for pets.

Louis watched as Zayn contemplated letting them in for a moment before sighing and gesturing for them to come inside. They both quickly followed behind him with Stella at their heels.

“Can I get either of you something to drink? I’ve got water, soda, coffee, or tea?” Zayn asked politely, going into full host mode. Louis found it funny how he did a complete 180 from contemplating not even letting them in.

“We’re good, we don’t plan on staying long,” Liam responded, breaking through Louis’s thoughts. Zayn nodded then made his way to the couch where he sat and patted for Stella to come sit on his lap. Louis sat on his loveseat while Liam took up sitting in an accent chair the farthest away.

Liam began his now rehearsed spiel about his and Louis’s journey and what they had encountered with Administrator Bray in the last few days. Louis watched, contributing his input at certain parts of the story for better clarification. When Louis wasn’t talking, he was analyzing Zayn’s face whose gaze never left Liam. Zayn was terrible at schooling his emotions which danced across his face a mile a minute. Louis figured his reactions were better than remaining stoic and cold, it at least showed he cared.

When Liam finished explaining everything, he held at the memory chip with evidence for Zayn to take.

“I don’t know if you remember me talking about our mom working on these in the lab. This is one of those chips.” Liam said as Zayn inspected the small chip in his hand.

“Yeah, I remember you talking about these. I was excited to see the finished project, but I didn’t think it would be for this.” He said sadly before sticking it in his neck, eyes glassing over. Louis glanced over to Liam and their eyes met for a brief moment. Louis nodded in assurance before directing his attention back to Zayn.

A few minutes passed before Zayn’s eyes became clear again and he removed the chip from his neck, taking a deep breath. He looked over to Stella resting beside him now and petted her head a few times before finally looking up to meet Liam and Louis’s eyes.

“Congrats, you finally got what every time travelers have been hoping for,” Zayn said while running his hands through his black hair. His tongue piercing glistening in the light when he talked. “Your mom knows you used her project for this?”

“I feel like everyone’s asked us something similar to that.” Louis huffed. “Our parents don’t believe us and wouldn’t even look at the chip. We’re not on the best of terms right now and once we turn this into the cops and give our statements we’ll probably be disowned unless they magically decided to get their heads out of their ass.”

“Louis!” Liam scolded “While I wish they would believe us you have to think about this from their perspective. This is their career they’ve been working on for years with co-workers they consider close friends including Administrator Bray. Trust me I want them to believe us, but I knew it wouldn’t be this easy. Their whole worlds are going to come crashing down once they realize the truth. It’s no secret their work is their lives.”

“We’re all going to be out of a job too.” Zayn chimed in.

“Oh, we’ve already been fired. Apparently breaking into the lab to steal memory chips and travel back in time to alter the timeline back to the way it should be is grounds for losing your job. Who would have thought?” Louis said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

“Okay so then I’ll be on the unemployment side too then…but I do agree with you guys we gotta make our voices be heard. This altering the timeline bullshit can’t go on. So, I’m in. When’s this going down?”

“Uhh preferably today, like as soon as possible. If Arabella is free, we all need to go down to the police station together and get the ball rolling on this.” Liam said, visibly more relaxed than before.

“The sooner the better because I’m supposed to do a mission tomorrow morning.” Zayn contributed.

“What?” Louis and Liam both said at the same time looking at Zayn for more answers.

“My job is to time travel; you guys know they have every mission planned out for the year for each traveler. Don’t look so surprised.”

“No, you’re right, we knew that we were just hoping we had more time till the next mission,” Liam explained. Louis watched as Liam and Zayn made eye contact and something of understanding flashed between both their faces before guarded expressions quickly replaced them again.

Louis got out his phone and texted Arabella asking to meet them in front of the station.

“You sure you want to do this Liam? I’m assuming you know what’s on the line.” Zayn questioned.

They both glanced over to Louis before making eye contact again.

“I know, but you are the only other person that knows and I’m begging you not to say anything.” Liam pleaded.

“Your brother doesn’t know?” Zayn glanced at Louis as he studied both of their features trying to decipher what they were talking about.

“No, I was going to tell him, but we haven’t had time to get into all of that recently, and the fewer people that know the less Maeve is in danger when we get questioned. Please I’m begging you here Zayn don't say anything. I’ve kept up my end of the bargain, please keep yours.” Liam begged something Louis had never seen him do before. He could hear Liam’s breath pick up as he worked himself into a panic.

“Hey, hey Liam look at me.” Zayn quickly got up off the couch and approached Liam across the room. “You gotta breathe man, calm down, I promise I won’t say anything. Everything’s going to be okay.” He placed his hand on Liam’s shoulder, but Liam quickly jerked away and stood up leaving them both inches apart from each other. Zayn took a few steps back putting his hands up in a surrendering gesture.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Just got worked up is all…. umm, thanks.” He said awkwardly sitting back down. Zayn nodded and moved back to his place on the couch as a blanket of awkward silence got laid over them.

“So…. wanna explain what the hell’s up with you two and your weirdness?” Louis asked sitting back in his seat and looking between the two men.

“Let’s get going, we're wasting time just sitting here. Louis, has Arabella replied yet?” Liam asked, getting up from his seat and walking towards the connecting kitchen.

“Yeah, she’s ready when we are. We can leave whenever. I think we need to get our stories straight first before we go in there. We can’t have surprises.” Louis supplied as he and Zayn both got up and they all made their way to the door with Stella trailing behind.

They met Zayn in the parking lot of the station with Arabella waiting for them.

“So, no Declan then?” Arabella asked as Zayn and her piled into the back of Liam’s car to chat before going in.

“No, he practically kicked Louis and me out of his apartment yesterday and called us traitors so I’m pretty sure he’s not going to be any help to us.”

“That could be a problem though, if the police call him in and question him, he could tell the police that we’re the liars. The four of us are the only current time travelers. With so few of us if one goes against the others this could destroy our whole plan.” Zayn reasoned.

“Arabella, Declan was your partner, do you think you can convince him? You know him the best out of all of us? Louis added. His excitement high of them finally getting somewhere and being taken seriously was starting to deflate as Zayn became the voice of reason in this delicate matter.

“Declan is a stubborn son of a bitch. We had a good work relationship, but we were never really friends outside of work. He’s not someone I’d want to grab a drink with after a stressful day. He was partly the reason some of my work days were stressful. I think it’s all a front though, him being so stubborn and guarded. I’ve seen him vulnerable before and it’s like his falls came crashing down and I saw a whole different person. I think if we approached him in a strategic way, we could get through to him.” Arabella supplied.

Liam turned the car engine back on and quickly turned down the radio. “Well that settles it we're going to go try again with all of this time as a last resort.”

Everyone buckled up and got settled more comfortably in their seats as the car reversed and started driving back to where they had visited the day prior. The four of them made polite small talk as they drove through the city. For co-workers and people that had known each other for years, they acted as only acquaintances that had just met. Louis wondered if tensions weren’t running high if the conversation would be different and more relaxed, or if they would even all be hanging out outside of work. Aside from Liam and Zayn who used to, that wasn’t something they all did as co-workers.

The car pulled up outside of Declan’s apartment again, Liam parallel parked the car on the street. They all piled out and made their way to his front door. The three standing behind Arabella as she knocked on his front door. The door creaked open a minute later with an unamused looking Declan on the other side who looked ready to quickly shut the door again.

“Hear us out before you say no and shut us out this is important,” Arabella said sternly, stepping forward to block him from shutting the door.

“I’m assuming this about what the traitor siblings were rambling about yesterday?” He replied, already moving aside before Arabella pushed past him.

“It is, and if you would have listened to what they had to say and viewed the memory chip maybe you would stop being a prick and realize they’re talking sense.” Arabella retorted taking a seat at one of the places at the small kitchen table.

Louis followed suit and pushed past to join Arabella at the table with the three boys trailing behind. There were only four seats, so Zayn took a seat at a barstool at the kitchen island next to the table.

“You all get ten minutes to convince me of your traitor ways and then you will get the hell out of my apartment and out of my life for good.”

“Damn dude calm down.” Zayn butted in and received glares from around the table as Arabella took over the conversation.

“Declan, you remember after our mission in the thirties, what we had come back to? All the changes in the timeline no one else realized happened. How you called me that night at 2 am, unable to sleep?”

Declan’s expression sobered and he nodded as he sighed deeply.

“Wait, what exactly changed after your mission? I’m assuming bigger things if it caused that reaction.” Liam asked. Louis and Zayn both looked on curiously for Arabella or Declan to answer.

“Our mission was to get footage of the great depression and the dust bowl, all for the world documentary series they were going to put on those memory chips your guy's mom was making. Just like all of you went on your missions to get footage and saw changes in the timeline too when you arrived back. This wasn’t the first time we had seen changes, but they were little before. Enough for us to notice but look past because they didn’t affect us. This time though we had gotten back and there had been a world war III and certain places were no longer habitable because of it.” Arabella explained.

Louis and Liam were both young when world war III happened. Louis remembered learning it had something to do with oil and other countries flaunting their powers and weapons. The war had lasted from 2052-2055 with parts of Russia, Canada, Mexico, Korea, and the United States becoming inhabitable due to the use of nuclear weapons. People turned their basements into bomb shelters, with new houses automatically being built with them.

The death toll had been massive and the United States president at the time receiving backlash for instating another draft. Louis’s mom had told him one time, if their dad didn’t work for the government, he would have been called to fight as many of his friends’ dads had.

“You two were the ones to start world war three? How is that even possible? What the hell did you two do?” Zayn said rising from his bar stool.

“We didn’t mean to! We have no idea what the fuck happened. I’ve spent every day since then trying to figure out what happened. My brother died in battle. I left for a mission and in this time was gone for a minute and I come back to find out my brother is gone, and I had gone to the funeral, yet I have no memory of it. I don’t want to end time travel, not until I can go back and fix whatever it is, we did.” Declan started looking between all of them.

“You weren’t the only one to lose someone you know?” Zayn broke the silence. “I remember every detail about my older brother leaving and coming home in a coffin. This is exactly why time travel has to be stopped. We’ve all changed the timeline in some way or another big or small, but if we keep trying to fix it someone it might only make things worse. Louis and Liam are right now that we have our proof, we need to end this before more innocent people die all because of some governments stupid documentary project.”

“Do you think it was always just about the documentary footage?” Louis asked.

“What do you mean?” Zayn responded.

“Administrator Bray knew the timelines were changing. He knows all the changes to the timeline that have occurred since time travel began. What if he wanted this to happen?”

“Why the hell would he do that? What good would it benefit him especially if anyone he knows or loves was in the war too? I just don’t see what Bray has to gain from all of this.” Arabella added. Everyone looked to be contemplating this as Louis glanced around.

“This is why we need to come forward and get Bray arrested. Hopefully, he’ll get questioned and come clean about everything, not that we’ll probably know what he says unless anyone’s got police connections.” Louis supplied. This seemed to kick things into gear.

“Here Declan look at the memory chip we have and then decide if you’re with or against us,” Liam said, sliding the memory chip across the table. Declan inspected it for a moment before looking up to everyone around the table staring at him.

“Fine.” He placed the chip in his neck, and everyone went silent as Declan watch the events unfold on the chip. Louis looked around studying the nervous and unsettled expressions on everyone’s faces. He was hoping they had finally broken through to Declan.

Declan finished watching the chip and placed it softly back on the table. He looked at everyone again before putting his head in his hands and then rubbing them over his face sighing again.

“I’m sorry for how I treated you two before when you came here yesterday.” Declan directed to Louis and Liam. “You all have made me look at things from a different perspective today and I do think with this chip we actually might be heard. So, I’m in.”

Everyone around the table cheered and a suffocating tension Louis hadn’t even realized suddenly dissipated from the air. The mood instantly shifted to hopeful and relaxed as everyone sat more comfortable in their seats.

“Okay now to get our stories straight,” Louis said and the room grew tense again.


	21. Chapter 21

They piled out of Liam’s car when they arrived at the police station. The evidence was securely stored in Liam’s jacket pocket. They were finally all on the same page now and had gotten their story straight. They walked into the police station and Liam took charge of the situation walking ahead to the police counter while the rest trailed behind.

“Excuse me, I need to file a report of wrongdoing for a government sensitive issue,” Liam spoke softly to the officer working the front desk and slid over his ID badge card; they all had badges to grant them access to the lab. Even though Liam and Louis didn’t work anymore they still had the badges as another form of proof. The officer looked at the badge and then looked up at Liam and nodded.

“This will require a detective since it deals with internal affairs. If you’ll have a seat, I’ll just make a call.” The officer responded gesturing to the few chairs lining the wall next to a vending machine.

A few minutes later an older gruff-looking Asian woman stepped into the waiting area and gestured for them to come back. They were led into a conference room and Louis got flashbacks to speaking with the council, a chill running down his spine.

“My name is detective Shiloh Yoon, my co-worker informed me you all wanted to make a report of an internal affair. Before we begin, I need to know all of your departments and positions with identification. They all reached into their wallets pulling out their badges and putting them into the middle of the table.

“We’re all employed by NTTA under TARC as time traveler’s ma’am. We report to Administrator Bray which is actually what brings us here today.” Liam supplied. Detective Yoon gathered all the badges and looked them over before scanning them with her phone for her records.

“I’m familiar with NTTA and Administrator Bray, but I can’t say I’ve heard of TARC.”

“It stands for Timeless Artifacts Retrieval Commission. We go back in time to get historical video footage. It’s a secret organization within NTTA.” Zayn explained.

“Okay so what exactly is the issue here?” Detective Yoon asked propping up her tablet to type notes as they spoke.

“Every time we time travel the timeline changes but only the people who have traveled are able to tell that it's changed, except for Administrator Bray who’s known this has gone on this entire time” Liam explained.

“And while some stuff that’s changed is small there’s been major events in history changed too,” Louis added not going into detail about the recent wartime traveling caused.

Detective Yoon stopped typing and looked up from his tablet. “Do you four have any evidence to back up these serious allegations?”

“We do actually, Liam the chip?” Arabella gestured to Liam.

Liam took out the chip and carefully placed it in Detective Yoon’s awaiting hand. “This is a memory chip. You stick it into the side of your neck, and you will see what the timeline was before our last time traveling a few days ago.”

The detective looked at the chip hesitantly. “This better not be a joke.” She grumbled before putting the chip where Liam had shown his to.

They all waited anxiously as the detective watched the chip. Louis knew not everything would help their case when it came to Louis’s personal relationships but when it came to the history and politics, he recorded hopefully that would be enough evidence and persuasion they needed. This detective hadn’t shown much personality yet, wearing a stone façade. He figured the detective at least listening to them in the first place and watching the chip was at least something. Detective Yoon pulled the chip out of her neck, sitting back down on the table next to his tablet.

“If this is true, then why have other time travelers not come forward with this information? Time-traveling isn't a secret and many other countries do it so why is this the first we are hearing of this? Detective Yoon questioned

“Because no one else has been able to provide proof until now. I’m sure plenty of other time travelers have raised concerns but what proof did they have of what their original timeline had been? No one probably believed them. No one believed us before.” Louis said sitting up straighter in his chair.

Detective Yoon nodded her head thoughtfully for a moment before turning her attention back to his tablet and typing rapidly at it. “Okay, this is definitely enough evidence to move forward. Next, I will need to interview you all individually to get official statements.”

“Actually, Arabella and I are travel partners and Liam and Zayn were as well so you may want to interview us in pairs since we were on the same missions.” Declan reasoned.

The detective nodded and turned to Louis. “Very well, looks like you will be the only one interviewed solely. We’ll start with you two first, the rest of you can wait in the lobby till I come to retrieve you.” She said pointing at Declan and Arabella.

Louis, Liam, and Zayn all got up from their chairs nervously glancing toward Arabella and Declan as they filed out of the room and back into the lobby.

“While in the back of my mind I knew the individual or group statements were a possibility, but I was hoping they would just take a group statement,” Louis said as he walked behind Liam and Zayn to the lobby. He glanced at an old clock hanging on the wall. Seeing it was dinner time he walked up to the vending machine and fished out his debit card from his pocket.

“Individual statements are still better than group statements, especially to hold everyone accountable.” Liam glanced towards Zayn and then back to Louis. “I’m sorry you have to do yours alone, however you did do your only mission alone so you’re the only one who can accurately tell what you know and what you’ve seen change.”

Louis grabbed his soda and chips and sat in the last open chair lined up against the wall between Liam and the vending machine.

“I guess this will make our case stronger in the end.” He opened up his chips and began eating them, offering some to Liam and Zayn.

They waited for around a half-hour before Arabella and Declan came out with Detective Yoon tailing behind and calling Zayn and Liam to follow his back.

“How’d it go?” Louis asked them as they both took a seat.

“Detective Yoon isn’t a person of many words, but she took a lot of notes from what we were saying. We told her about every mission we’ve done, even any solo missions we occasionally did. That alone should be enough strong evidence to build a case.” Declan said folding his arms over his chest.

“Yes, it would be if our word was enough evidence to go by. But two people’s word on events we can’t prove changed doesn’t always hold up when trying to pursue that to a jury.” Arabella interjected going to get her own soda from the vending machine.

“Jury? Do you think they’ll take this to court?” Louis asked, looking toward Arabella.

“Of course. If they arrest Bray you know he’s going to fight this and plead not guilty and that begins the long intense trials of his word vs ours. If we convince them today to arrest him this is just the beginning of a taxing process ahead of us.”

“I never thought about the aftermath of us coming forward and him getting arrested, but I suppose your right. What do you think will happen to the lab then?

“Well if the government doesn’t immediately shut down NTTA as a whole, I’m assuming one of his council people under him would take over for the time being.” Declan reasoned.

“Oh, I’m sure that would be a treat,” Louis answered sarcastically as he gulped down the rest of his soda and threw his can in the recycling bin.

Twenty more minutes passed by before Zayn and Liam returned and Louis was being called back. He took a deep breath before rising from his chair and walking towards the detective. He didn’t know why he felt so nervous and fidgety. All he had to do was recount his mission and tell the truth. This should be an easy task. Yet in a way he felt like he was the one about to be interrogated and the process hadn’t even begun yet.

He was led into a smaller room than before. One you would see in crime movies and dramas. Louis could clearly tell one wall held a two-way mirror and that this room was indeed primarily used for interrogations.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve been recording everyone’s statements on my tablet just in case I missed anything in my notes that might be important.” Detective Yoon spoke breaking Louis from his anxious thoughts.

“Oh…sure I don’t mind,” Louis spoke timidly wringing his hands.

“Relax dear, this is just a statement, not an interrogation. I will ask you a few questions just for clarification purposes but you're free to tell me as much or little as you choose. Now the first thing is how many missions did you complete and were you solo, or did you also have a partner?”

“My first and only mission was only a few days ago and I went at it solo. I had been training for two years for that moment, but my mission didn’t necessarily go as planned.” Louis started recounting the full story of his mission and Liam coming to get his. He spoke about Alex and what had happened to him after they left and the change of presidents. He knew it was risky, but he spoke about his and Niall going back to set things right and how they seemed to be now. “That’s what you had viewed on that memory chip, my memories before Niall and I had traveled back to fix the timeline. This is why you’ll notice the president and a couple of other things are different.”

Detective Yoon nodded and made noises of affirmation from time to time as he furiously typed away at his tablet only looking up at the more intense parts of Louis’s story.

“I’m very sorry all those things happened to you Louis, but I’m glad you and your friends came forward today. If that’s all you have to tell me, I’ll have you sign your statement and then I’ll bring this forward to the rest of my department where hopefully we have enough of a case here to move forward. We’ll need you all to stay in the city and keep your phones handy. You’ll receive a call from me if further action is taken.” Detective Yoon pushed over his tablet to Louis where he e-signed his statement and then was led back to the lobby with the others.

The others stood up upon seeing Louis and they all made their way back to Liam’s car to go home. The car ride dropping everyone off was fairly quiet until it was just Louis and Liam left.

“I think we should try talking to at least mom again when we get home to at least give his heads up if they do arrest the administrator. He might be pissed at us, hell maybe even disown us, but he should hear it from us before it happens.” Liam spoke while keeping his eyes on the road. The sun was beginning to set in the warm summer sky. The air conditioner blasted to make the car cool.

“I don’t really want to, but I know you're right. However, given what happened before I doubt it’s going to go much better. They wouldn’t even view the chip before. At least after viewing the chip we were able to get Arabella, Zayn, and Declan on our side.”

“That’s different though; their time travelers there know the timeline changing is a very real thing and can remember everything. To mom and dad, everything has always been the same. But maybe if we talked to them apart, we could at least convince one of them to see it from our point of view.” Liam reasoned.

“I agree, I think mom is our best bet. Even though he won’t be thrilled we used his memory chip to record evidence against his boss and friend, it is still his creation so I think he would be inclined to at least watch it and then decide where he stands.”

“Yeah except for Detective Yoon kept the memory chip as evidence. We’re back to being empty-handed for now.” He spoke as they turned onto their street.

“Shit…this is going to go horrible then,” Louis said already feeling the dread seep into his stomach. He felt like today went on forever and all he really wanted to do was have a proper dinner then crawl into bed and watch some more of Harry’s videos before going to sleep.

“We’ll go in there, take mom aside if he’s with Peyton, and quickly try to reason with him again. If anything, at least try to explain to him what we did today and why we did it. If he wants to hate us or even disown us fine, but at least we’ll know we tried.” He pulled the car to the side of the road in front of the house and shut off the engine.

They both walked at a slower pace up the driveway to the front door of the house. Louis used his thumbprint to get in and they both were greeted with Peyton watching football in the living room.

“Hey, kids! Have a good day out? You two have been gone for a long time.” Peyton said casually making conversation as he lounged on the couch. Louis appreciated how even without knowing or trying Peyton remained a constant familiarity of normality in their bizarre fucked up world.

“Yeah it was good, just hung out with some friends from work,” Louis said. He didn’t like lying to Peyton so he always tried to tell him as close to the truth as he could.

“Oh good, well I made my famous stew for dinner if you two are hungry. Leftovers are in the fridge.”

“Thanks,” Liam said taking that as his out and going towards the kitchen. Louis was hungry for an actual dinner, but he figured it would be better to speak with their mom first, especially while she’s not in the same room as Peyton.

“Should we go see if moms upstairs?” Louis asked Liam who was already raiding the fridge. He looked down at the food he had just pulled out then frowned and put it back in the fridge and nodded towards Louis.

They both made their way upstairs and down the hallway to their mom’s office. A place she was normally in if not in any of the common areas of the house. Louis tapped lightly at the door and he heard a soft “come in” from the other side.

“Hey, mom sorry to interrupt, do you mind if Liam and I talk to you for a sec?”

“Sure, come in.” Their mom replied, putting her tablet down.

The main light in the office was off with only the soft glow of the lamp on his desk illuminating her face and the small area. There was a small couch on the wall across from her desk that Louis and Liam took a seat on. Louis reached over and turned on the lamp sitting on the side table next to him.

“Okay, what are we here to talk about?” She said looking between the two of them, the motion causing her glasses to slip a little down her nose.

“Mom I know you and dad freaked out before when Louis and I tried to bring up some disturbing news about the lab and the Administrator, but please we're we’re begging you here as your children just hear us out.” Liam pleaded scooting to the edge of the sofa to be closer to their mom. Louis could hear the desperation in his voice.

“You two and this nonsense talk again. I don’t know what either of you is trying to accomplish with these malicious accusations, but I thought your father and I made it clear before you were not to bring this up again.”

“If you don’t want to believe us that’s fine, we already have the other time travelers on our side and that’s who we needed the most. As a courtesy we just thought we’d let you know us, Arabella, Declan, and Zayn all went to the police today and we gave our statements to a detective. We also handed over the memory chip to them that has evidence that the timeline changes when we travel. The one we tried to get you and dad to view before we took it in. Their building a case against Administrator Bray.” Louis said in a cold tone. He was already annoyed with their mother. He figured she wouldn’t listen to them so might as well explain what they came to tell her and then get on with their evening.

“You are trying to have Administrator Bray arrested? The man who was your boss and a dear friend to your father and me.” Their mom said at first in disbelief that slowly seeped into anger.

“Just because he’s a family friend and our bosses doesn’t mean what he knows and is doing isn’t wrong. If you would take the time to actually listen to us, you’d know all the terrible things he let happen to the timeline. WWIII wouldn’t have been a thing if it wasn’t for him!” Liam began to shout and rise up from the couch. Louis put his arm out and gently grabbed Liam to guide him back down.

“I am so ashamed of both of you. It’s one thing to dislike your boss, but to say things like him being the reason for starting WWIII is absolutely horrendous and disrespectful. I swear if you weren’t both adults, I would ground you immediately and wash your mouth out with soap. Now get out of my office I’ve had enough of this.” She angrily said pointing her finger towards the door before fixing her glasses and turning her attention back to her tablet.

Louis was seething with anger and he could tell by the way Liam was sitting rigidly next to his that he was too. They both without another word and exited their mom’s office. Louis slamming the door loudly behind him.

“Tomorrow is a new day,” Liam spoke before turning on his heels and walking straight into his room and slamming the door behind him. Louis retreated to his own room, forgoing his hunger. He looked up to his ceiling holding back tears of frustration. _Please let this all be worth it,_ he silently prayed.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally, we've made it to the end of book one! Let me know what you think and if you would actually like me to start posting book two. For those who read to the end thank you for sticking with the story and I hope you enjoyed it!

Louis woke with a relaxed feeling throughout his body. For the first time in days, he didn’t wake up anxious with a knot persistently weighing down his stomach. At this point, it was a waiting game to see what happened. Until then he was supposed to go back to normal life and figure out what his new career path will be now that time traveling was no longer his job.

He ate breakfast, showered, and got dressed in cut-off shorts and a T-shirt letting his hair air dry. He only had one thing planned for today and that was the appointment he made to get a tattoo with Harry.

Louis slipped on his flip flops laying by the door and over to his old car. He put the address of the studio into his navigation system and began following the monotone directions through the city. _Vibrant ink_ the neon sign glowed at the small storefront of a busy street in the heart of the city. Louis parked his car on the street and paid the parking fare on the app before grabbing his purse and getting out of the car.

The inside of the shop is exactly what Louis had seen on their website from looking them up online. Modern black vinyl flooring lined the floor while the wall was painted a light gray. The back wall was covered floor to ceiling in white, gray, and black staggering subway tile creating a cool feature wall. The desk in front of him was black with a light gray and black granite countertop.

The shop was busy with various artists at their stations working on clients. A middle-aged guy behind the counter covered in tattoos and piercings asked if he could help Louis with something.

“Hi, I have an appointment with Harry.”

The man grabbed a tablet from the counter and handed it to Louis. “Fill these papers out, it will indicate which boxes require signatures or initials. Then at the end, you will scan your license or ID. When you're done just bring the tablet back up. In the meantime, I’ll go let Harry know you’re here.”

Louis took the tablet and went to sit on one of the black leather sofas seated against a wall of windows. A woman a little older than him was sitting on a chair nearby also waiting for her turn to be tattooed. Louis filled out the information while the sound of talking, tattoo guns running, and rap music mingled together in the background. The calm feeling that ran through him this morning was long gone and replaced with nervous jitters at the prospect of doing something new and fairly permanent, aside from getting painfully removed by a laser.

A young man with long dark hair pulled back by a snapback and cutoff T-shirt and workout shorts displaying all his tattoos approached the counter leaning over it.

Louis knew instantly that was Harry. He was in awe of his beauty even more in person. Harry caught Louis staring and smiled warmly at him.

“Louis?” He asked.

Louis nodded and stood up, bringing the tablet with the completed forms over to him. “That’s me, here you go.”

“Thank you. And what tattoo are you getting on your left wrist today?” He asked as he scanned over the paperwork on the tablet.

“I want just small quotation marks on my wrist,” Louis replied showing a picture on his phone of what he meant.

“Okay great, let me draw this up really quick and then I’ll call you back to my chair.” He said happily, already moving back to his drawing station. Louis watched after him as he walked away trying not to stare. He quickly made his way back to his seat on the couch and took out his phone to play on it as he waited.

About five minutes later Harry was calling Louis back to his chair which was the farthest one back in the shop.

“Okay before you sit down let me put this outline on your wrist and you can look and make sure it’s in the exact place you want it and then we can get started.”

His voice was like honey to Louis. He could hear and see the small traces of Alex in him and it was driving him crazy. Harry softly took Louis’s wrist in his hand and put the stencil paper outline onto his wrist, gently patting it down. He peeled the stencil paper away slowly and in purple was the outline of Louis’s future tattoo on his wrist.

“Look good?” Harry asked, throwing away the stencil paper. Louis looked up from his wrist and smiled at him.

“Looks perfect.”

“Awesome, have a seat and we can get started then.” Harry got out a fresh needle putting it in his tattoo gun and taking out a small cup pouring black ink into it. “So, is this your first tattoo?” he asked, making conversation as he dipped the needle in the ink.

“Yeah, does the look on my face gives it away?” Louis laughed trying to force himself to relax and not look at the needle coming towards his skin.

“Just relax.” He said as he brought the needle down to Louis’s skin and began working on the quotation marks. “And no, your non-inked skin was my first clue, though you could have one hiding under your clothes for all I know.” He said with a wink.

Louis thought he had imagined the wink at first turning away and blushing. “No this is my first one. You're popping my tattoo cherry.” If Harry was going to flirt with him Louis was definitely going to flirt back. 

“Damn, I feel honored. Tattoo virgins are my specialty.” Harry responded smiling wide and he dipped the needle in ink again before going back to tattooing.

Louis grimaced at the pain. It was uncomfortable but bearable, especially if he didn’t watch the needle make contact with his skin and just focused on Harry’s face or the various things around the shop.

“So do the quotation marks have a meaning or just something you liked?” Harry asked, making conversation.

“Actually, I’m getting them for a good friend of mine who I haven’t seen in a very long time. They symbolize all the words unspoken and never said because there’s nothing in-between the quotation marks. I had a lot more I wanted to say to him, but time wasn’t on our side.” Louis felt a different pain run through him not caused by the needle drawing on his wrist filling in the second quotation mark of the first pair.

When the needle left his skin, Harry looked up at Louis with a soft smile. “That’s incredibly deep and well thought out. I love that” He took a paper towel and some soap water and cleaned off some of the think and blood that had pooled at the surface before he began working on the other pair of quotation marks to complete the set.

“Thank you, I wanted my first tattoo to be meaningful and after researching and seeing your portfolio online I knew you were the perfect artist for the job.” Louis smiled back. He would get his entire body inked if it meant he got to sit and talk with Harry more. For all Louis knew he could already be seeing someone, though he would hope he wouldn’t be flirting with strangers if that was the case.

“Well, I’m quite honored and touched by that Louis. I wish all my clients were as pretty and nice as you.” He said coyly, continuing to look down at Louis’s wrist tattooing.

“Well I may not be able to afford to be your client all the time, but you could see me again soon if you wanted to grab some dinner tonight?” Louis asked confidently even though his insides felt like they were on fire.

“Damn pretty boys got some moves.” Harry laughed teasingly. “But yes, dinner tonight sounds great. I get off at seven so how bout you meet me in front of the shop around then and we can grab a bite at one of the restaurants on the block?”

“It’s a date,” Louis said as they smiled at each other.

The rest of the tattoo went by very quickly since it was so small and before he knew it Louis was getting his wrist cleaned up and wrapped in saran wrap.

“You can take this off in a few hours then wash the area gently with mild soap and water. No long exposure to sun and no swimming for at least four to six weeks till it is completely healed. Oh, and put some moisturizer lotion on it a few times a day after the third day when it starts to become itchy.” Harry rambled off as he handed Louis a sheet that listed all the information he was saying. There at the top of the sheet was also Harry’s name and phone number written with a purple pen.

“Sounds easy enough! I’ll send you a text in a little bit just so you have my number in case anything changes for tonight.” Louis said getting up from the chair and following Harry back up to the counter at the front.

“Alright, that will be $60 please.”

Louis handed Harry $75 to include a tip and told him he’d see him tonight before walking out of the shop and back to his car. He looked down at his wrist again and smiled. A part of him would always think about Alex seeing those four small marks. His thoughts were interrupted by the insistent vibrating of his phone ringing. He fished it out of his pocket and saw Liam was calling pressing the accept button.

“Hey bro, what’s up?” Louis answered feeling in a good mood. By the way, Liam answered he knew that mood was about to be shattered.

“Hey Louis, I think you should come home, Arabella, Declan, and Zayn are already on their way over.

“What? Why is everyone on their way over? We just saw them yesterday.” He asked, already starting his car and pulling onto the road heading back to his house.

“Detective Yoon just called me. They issued a warrant for Administrator Bray’s arrest this morning and they just took him into custody. He said he was already throwing a fit calling his lawyer saying he wasn’t guilty.”

“Oh shit, I’m heading home right now. What’s going to happen now then? Is this finally all over? Did we win?” Louis asked hopefully as he picked up the speed of his driving a little wanting to get home now as soon as possible. “Also is having everyone over with mom and Peyton around a good idea? We’re already one step away from mom disowning us.”

“Mom and Peyton are both at work right now so we should be fine as long as we make this quick and everyone’s gone by four. We have to make sure everyone’s on the same page and on our side because the four of us will have to get a lawyer and testify against Administrator Bray on trial. This is only the beginning of taking down time-travel.


End file.
